IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


A 


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1.0 


I.I 


M^^»    125 

|5o   ■^"     H^H 

1^    12.2 


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Photographic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


33  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER, NY.  M580 

(716)  872-4503 


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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiqjfis 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


D 


D 
D 


D 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagie 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur6e  et/ou  pellicul6e 

Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Ci'<rtes  g6ographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


I      I    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 


Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Relii  avec  d'autres  documents 


Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serr^e  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intirieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajout6es 
lors  dune  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  dtait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6t6  filmies. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  suppl^mentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  6X6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mdthode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiqu6s  ci-dessous. 


Tl 
tc 


I      I    Coloured  pages/ 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommag^es 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restaurdes  et/ou  pellicul6es 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxet 
Pages  d6color6es,  tachetdes  ou  piquies 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  d^tach^es 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Qualiti  inigale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


r~~|  Pages  damaged/ 

I      I  Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

r~T|  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I      I  Pages  detached/ 

I      I  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I      I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

I      I  Only  edition  available/ 


D 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6X6  filmdes  A  nouveau  de  fapon  6 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


Tl 

P< 
0l 
fll 


Oi 
b« 

th 

Si( 

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fii 

sii 
or 


Th 

sh 
Tl 

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be 

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This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ca  document  est  filmA  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu6  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

/ 

?.6X 

30X 

7 

12X                              16X                              20X                              24X                              28X                              32X 

Th«  copy  flimad  her«  has  baen  raproducad  thanks 
to  tha  ganarosity  of: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Tha  imagas  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
possibia  considaring  tha  condition  and  lagibiiity 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacifications. 


Original  copias  in  printad  papar  covars  ara  flimad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  onding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  iilustratad  impras- 
sion,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copias  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  iilustratad  impras- 
sion,  and  anding  on  tha  last  paga  with  a  printad 
or  iilustratad  imprassion. 


Tha  last  racordad  frama  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  —^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


L'exemplaira  film4  fut  reproduit  grAce  A  la 
gAnArosit*  da: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Las  imagas  sulvantas  ont  AtA  raprodultas  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin,  compta  tenu  de  la  condition  at 
de  la  nattet*  de  l'exemplaira  filmA,  at  en 
conformity  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmaga. 

Les  exemplairas  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  ImprimAe  sont  filmAs  en  commenpant 
par  la  premier  plat  at  an  terminant  soit  par  la 
darnlAre  paga  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplairas 
originaux  sont  filmis  en  commenpant  par  la 
premiire  paga  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  at  en  terminant  par 
la  derniire  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboies  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
derniAre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  — *•  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  Atre 
filmAs  A  des  taux  de  rAduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  il  est  filmA  A  partir 
de  Tangle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  drolte, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  nAcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mAthode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

THE  PAST, 


THE 


PRESENT  AND  THE  FUTURE 


OP 


THE  PACIFIC. 


BY 


JAMES   M.   CRANE. 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL.  : 

PRINTED  BY  STEBBTT  &  CO.,   NO.    Ill    WASHINGTON  STREET. 


iss'e. 


Entered  according  to  an  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1856, 

bt  jambs  u.  crane, 

IB  the  Clerk'.  Office  of  the  United  State.  District  Court,  for  Northern  QOifornla. 


m   H  i'.  M  A  i 


PREFACE. 


In  presenting  this  small  work  to  the  public,  I  am  but  complying 
with  the  wishes  of  those  friends,  for  whose  opinions  I  entertain, 
and  have  always  entertained,  a  very  high  respect.  Some  of  them 
are  friends  whose  acquaintance  I  formed  in  1849,  and  our  relations 
to  each  other,  have  been  most  amicable  ever  since.  The  most  of 
them  have,  like  myself,  made  the  North  Pacific  their  permanent 
homes.  We  have  all  experienced  many  reverses  and  vicissitudes, 
since  we  took  up  our  residence  in  this  country,  but  we  have  lived 
however,  long  enough,  to  see  a  powerful  State  of  the  American 
Union  formed  on  this  side  Of  the  continent,  and  we  hope  to  live  long 
enough  to  see  many  more  added  to  it.  Although  many  of  us  have 
lost  every  thing  we  possessed  in  the  world,  in  attempting  to  build 
up  this  country,  yet  we  feel  gratified  to  know  that  we  have,  by 
our  labors,  enriched  millions  in  our  former  homes,  as  well  as  en- 
larged the  resources,  revenues,  area,  and  power  of  our  common 
country. 

The  Parent  Government  has  been,  unfortunately,  too  oppressive 
towards  us  in  its  laws  and  policy,  to  enable  many  of  us  to  boast 
of  possessing  much  of  this  world's  wealth.  "Wo  have  been  made, 
ever  since  we  resided  on  these  Pacific  shores,  mere  "  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water  "  to  the  Government  at  Washington 
and  our  brethren  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  continent.  They  have 
been  our  oppressive  taskmasters  ever  since  we  resided  here,  and 
we  have  served  them  most  faithfully,  and  we  shall  never  get  free 
from  their  tyranny  and  oppression,  until  we  take  measures  to  de- 
fine our  position  and  defend  ourselves.  This  is  strong  talk,  but 
we  mean  all  we  say.  Let  not  the  United  States  Government 
forget  the  lesson  our  ancestors  taught  Great  Britain,  when  she,  in 
the  pride  of  her  power,  forced  them  to  define  thyir  position  and 
to  defend  themselves.  The  result  of  that  contest  is  now  a  matter 
of  history,  and  we  are  all  familiar  with  it. 

In  this  small  work  we  can  only  give  in  fact,  but  a  synopsis  of  a 

IHOSiU) 


part  of  our  intended  publication  on  the  "  Past,  tlie  Present,  and 
the  Future  of  the  Pacific."  Our  t;omplete  work  will  probably  be 
ready  for  the  press  in  the  course  of  three  months.  In  tliat  work, 
we  shall  present  some  facts  which  we  hope  will  not  only  arrest 
the  especial  attention  of  our  countrymen,  in  every  part  of  this 
Union,  and  the  General  Government,  but  the  entire  civilized  world. 
We  hope  to  develop  new  fields  for  commercial  enterprise,  and 
new  objects  for  the  contemplation  and  serious  action  of  the  Parent 
Government.  Our  present  condition  is  one  of  great  anxiety,  and 
we  are  exceedingly  concerned  to  know,  whether  we  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  look  to  the  National  Government  for  safety  and  protec- 
tion, or  whether  we  shall  have  to  depend  upon  ourselves.  This 
qoestion  will  have  shortly  to  be  met  and  settled.  For  the  facts 
contained  in  our  present  work,  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the 
statements  made  in  the  publication.  We  hope  they  will  be  care- 
fully read  and  well  digested,  by  all  those  who  love  our  coimtry, 
our  whole  country,  however  bounded,  as  still  our  country;  and  who 
are  ready  to  defend  her  with  all  their  hearts  and  hands. 

The  present  publication  contains  the  substance  of  the  two  lec- 
tures, which  I  recently  delivered  in  San  Francisco  and  Sacra- 
mento. 


CHAPTER  I. 


In  presenting  this  small  work  to  the  public,  I  trust  I  am  influ- 
enced by  no  sordid  or  unworthy  considerations.     My  hope  is  to 
benefit  the  people  of  the  North  Pacific,  and  promote  the  prosperity 
of  the  whole  country.     I  trust  it  will  be  found  to  contain  subjects 
not  uninteresting,  perhaps,  to  the  humblest  citizen  of  the  United 
States.    We  are  all  inhabitants  of  a  common  country,  and  the 
majority  of  us  "  native  and  to  the  manor  born,"  or  adopted  citizens 
of  the  most  enlightened  and  powerful  Republic  the  world  has 
ever  known.    It  is  but  natural,  therefore,  that  we  should  feel  a 
profound  interest,  in  all  that  concerns  her  honor  and  the  welfare 
and  prosperity  of  her  people.    As  we  here  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
occupy  a  portion  of  the  Union,  remote  from  the  seat  of  the  Parent 
Government,  we  are  more  likely  to  stand  in  need  of  the  fostering 
care  and  attention  of  the  chief  "  Powers  That  Be,"  than  perhaps 
any  other  part  of  this  Union.     Owing  to  this  very  remoteness 
from  Washington,  the  General  Government  must  often  feel  much 
embarrassed,  when  it  is  called  upon  to  act  and  legislate  for  this 
country.    The  Federal  Government,  however,  has  evidently  often 
been  at  fault  in  not  seeking  proper  information.    Its  course  to- 
wards us  in  numerous  instances  has  been  marked  by  acts  of  injus- 
tice, for  which  there  can  be  no  excuse.     It  is  my  purpose,  in  this 
book,  to  point  out  these  acts  of  injustice,  and  to  unite  with  all 
good  men  in  having  them  brought  to  the  notice  and  attention  of 
the  Federal  Government,  as  well  as  to  the  serious  consideration  of 
the  people  of  the  Atlatic  States.  I  also  propose  to  present  some 
interesting  facts,  connectd  with  the  condition  and  progress  of  this 
portion  of  the  North  American  Union. 

It  is  not  often  we  refer  to  the  humiliating  relations,  in  which 

we,  on  the  Pacific,  have  been  placed,  by  the  action  of  Congress 

•  and  the  Federal  Executive,  in  reference  to  our  judicial,  commercial, 

and  political  a£fairs.  It  is  not  often  we  refer  to  their  discriminations 


6 


against  us;  of  their  not  placing  m  on  an  equality  with  our  sister 
States  and  Teritorics  on  the  other  side  of  the  Continent ;  of  their 
gross  neglect  of  us  and  of  the  repeated  iryuries  they  have  done  to 
the  rights  and  property  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  country.  All 
of  these  grievances  we  have  patiently  borne.  It  is  now  our 
purpose,  however,  to  speak  out  and  demand  redress  of  grievances, 
as  well  as  to  inform  them  that  their  conduct  towards  us  is  not  to 
our  liking,  and  that  we  are  unwilling  longer  to  submit  quietly 
to  these  flagrant  wrongs. 

Since  California  was  purchased  from  Mexico — while  she  was  a 
conquered  province,  (for  she  never  was  a  Territory)  under  a  milita- 
ry government,  and  since  she  has  become  an  integral  member  of  the 
Union,  it  has  been  the  uniform  practice  and  policy  of  the  "  Powers 
That  Be,"  at  Washington,  to  treat  this  part  of  our  common  country 
as  if  our  State  and  the  Territories  adjacent,  had  no  claims  upon 
the  Federal  Government  to  be  regarded  as  standing  on  an  equality 
with  the  States  and  Territories  on  the  Atlantic  side.  This  was 
the  practice  and  the  policy  of  the  Government  under  Presidents 
Polk  and  Fillmor'i,  and  the  same  course  has  been  invariably  pur- 
sued towards  us,  by  the  Government  under  President  Pierce. 
Indeed  it  appears  to  have  been  from  the  beginning,  and  is  still 
now,  a  settled  conviction  with  all  parties  and  all  public  men  in 
Washington,  that  the  people  of  the  Pacific  Coast  are  personally 
and  politically,  every  way  inferior  to  their  brethren  in  the 
Atlantic  States,  and  that  the  State  of  California  itself,  although  a 
member  of  the  federal  compact,  is  not  equal  in  all  things  with  the 
rest  of  her  sister  States.  To  prove  that  we  are  not  slandering 
the  "  Powers  That  Be,"  in  Washington,  let  us  appeal  to  the  truth 
of  history,  in  support  of  the  declarations  we  have  made. 

During  the  short  session  of  Congress  of  1848-1849.  President 
Polk  recommended  to  that  body  the  propriety  of  organizing  a 
territorial  government  in  California.  Right  on  the  heel  of  this 
proposition  there  came  another  one,  from  several  members  of  both 
Houses,  recommending  the  passage  of  an  act  authorizing  the  sale 
of  all  the  mineral  lands  of  this  State.  The  proposition  of  Presi- 
dent Polk  was  of  course  rejected,  although  it  elicited  a  long  and 
warm  discussion  in  both  houses.  The  second  proposition,  how- 
ever, was  considered  a  capital  one — just  the  thing  to  put  money 
into  the  General  Treasury.  A  law  to  this  effect  would  certainly 
have  passed  had  the  session  not  been  so  near  its  close.    The  only 


idea  which  then  occupied  the  minds  of  all  the  public  men  in 
Washington,  was  the  fact,  that  California  was  rich  in  mineral 
rosouroes,  and  that  all  of  their  legislation  ought  therefore,  to  be  so 
directed,  as  to  make  these  resources  available  to  the  General  Qov- 
ernment,  and  not  to  those  who  had  at  great  risk  and  peril  immi- 
grated to  this  remote  portion  of  the  Union.  No  l&w  could  be 
passed  to  protect  us  in  our  persons  and  property.  They  would 
permit  us  to  have  no  government,  whatever,  and  yet  they  imposed 
on  us  heavy  taxes,  to  support  that  very  Government  to  which  alone 
we  could  look  for  safety  and  protection.  Indeed  the  Government 
acted  OS  if  it  intended  to  cast  us  adrift  upon  the  world,  to  shift 
for  ourselves,  while  at  the  same  time,  it  demanded  of  us  acquies- 
cence in,  and  obedience  io,  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  The 
only  acts  that  Congress  would  consent  to  pass  having  reference 
to  this  country,  was  one  extending  over  California  the  Revenue 
Laws  of  the  United  States,  and  one  providing  for  the  collection 
of  postage  on  letters  and  papers  in  Oregon  and  California. 

And  as  if  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  General  Government  not  to 
allow  the  Collector  of  the  District  of  California,  any  latitude  or 
independence  whatever,  the  Collecting  District  of  San  Francisco, 
which  then  included  the  whole  State,  was  attached  to  the  Collect- 
ing District  of  New  Orleans.  Instead  of  the  Collector  of  this 
Port  acting  as  an  independent  officer  of  the  Customs,  under  the 
orders  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  he  was  made  a  sub-collector 
of  the  Collector  of  New  Orleans.  Of  course  this  ridiculous  ar- 
rangement led  to  endless  confusion  and  embarrasment  to  the 
people  of  California,  to  the  Collector  of  San  Francisco,  and  to 
the  General  Government  itself.  Besides  all  this,  Col.  Collier  the 
first  Civil  Collector,  was  by  the  difficulties  which  surrounded  his 
position,  kept  inconstant  hot  water.  This  act  was,  however, 
in  the  course  of  one  year  repealed  by  Congress  and  in  lieu  of  it, 
there  were  erected  three  independent  collecting  districts  in 
California,  viz  :  San  Francisco,  Monterey,  and  San  Diego. 

The  law  providing  for  the  collection  of  ijostage  on  letters  and 
papers,  was  a  gross  outrage  on  the  people  of  this  country.  The 
tariff  of  postage  T  aised  so  high  under  this  act  of  Congress, 
that  the  receipts  of  the  Post  Office  of  San  Francisco,  alone,  per 
annum  were,  for  the  space  of  three  years,  larger  than  that  of  any 
one  Post  Office  in  the  United  States,  with  the  exception  of  New 
York  city,  and  yet  New  York  boasted  of  a  population  of  over 


8 

600,000,  whilo  San  Francifico  could  not  at  any  time  durini^  these 
three  years  have  had  much  over  85  or  40,000.  What  is  still  more 
8tran(^c,  Now  York  had  numerous  daily  mails  from  almost  every 
part  of  the  Atlantic  States,  and  one  mail  per  week  from  Europe, 
South  and  Central  America,  the  Islands  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
about  every  other  day  from  all  the  British  Provinces;  while  Cali- 
fornia for  the  most  of  this  time,  was  bleit  with  only  one  mail  each 
moath  or  twelve  mails  per  annum.  Bven  with  the  present  reduced 
rates  of  posta^j,  the  amount  of  revenue  derived  from  California 
by  the  Post  Ofiice  Department,  is  immense  when  compared  with 
other  States.  There  are  only  four  S  atcs  of  this  Union  that  pay 
more  postage  revenne  into  the  Department  than  CuUfo.'i.r,  and 
yet  she  has  a  population  not  over  perhaps  400  000,  while  the 
other  States  that  exceed  her  in  revenue  can  count  their  population 
by  millions.  The  followirg  are  the  States  that  exceed  her  in 
postage  revenue,  viz:  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  and 
Ohio.  There  are  only  three  states  that  pay  a  larger  net  revenue 
than  California,  viz:  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Pennsylvania. 
The  states  ul'  North  Carolina,  Texas,  Iowa,  Arkansas,  Florida, 
and  Delaware,  having  an  aggregate  population  of  two  millions  and 
a  quarter,  in  1854  combined  paid  the  Department  $248,581,  while 
California,  with  a  population  not  over  four  hundred  thousand, 
alone,  during  the  same  year,  paid  the  Post  Office  Department 
$256,188,  being  $8,607  more  than  those  six  States  mentioned 
above  paid  altogether.  For  each  Representative  in  Congress  dur- 
ing the  year  1854,  the  Post  Master  General's  report  exliibited  the 
following  extraordinary  state  of  things.  The  average  amount  of 
postage  paid  for  each  Representative  in  Congress,  by  California, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New  York  is  thus  stated: 

California  paid 8128,094. 

Mussachnsitts  paid 46,660. 

Connecticut        "    42,300. 

New  York         "    40,C"1. 

It  will  be  thus  seen  by  official  documents  that  California  alone, 
pays  three  times  as  much  postage  revenue  per  annum,  for  each 
Representative,  into  the  Post  Office  Department  as  New  York. 
The  average  amount  of  postage  to  each  inhabitant  of  New 
York  city,  under  the  present  •!■  '^ge  rates,  is  98  cents  to  each  in- 
habitant, and  in  San  Francisi.:),  1 1  P6.  The  amount  collected  from 
box  rents  in  New  York  chy,  is  ?:J6,000  per  annum,  and  in  San 


Francifico,  $30,000  por  annum.  And  yet  tho  Post  Manter  Qoneral 
writes  to  California,  that  "  no  nrrangement  can  be  consented  to 
which  will  diminish  tho  revenue  of  the  Post  Office  of  San  Prau- 
oIbco."  Wo  will  probably  lot  Mr.  Campbell  see,  before  long, 
whether  such  an  arrangonrcnt  cannot  bo  made.  Ho  had  better 
use  a  little  milder  and  more  respectful  language  to  tho  people 
of  Californip.,  h'^'*"after,  when  ho  undertakes  to  write  any 
more  letters  out  to  liifl  country.  The  postage  rates  fixed  by  law 
charges  only  thrr<"  o^nts  for  each  letter,  in  all  the  Atlantic  States 
and  Territorieri,  while  H  compols  the  people  of  California,  Oregon, 
and  Washington,  to  pty  ten  cents  on  every  letter. 

Tho  laws  above  roterred  to  were,  as  we  have  said  before,  the 
only  acts  Congress  would  consent  to  pass,  having  reference  to 
California,  and  they  were  solely  designed  to  enure  to  tho  benefit 
of  the  General  Government.  This  was  the  way  Congress  com- 
menced legislating  for  the  Pacilic.  The  officers  appointed  to 
execute  those  laws,  enforced  them  to  the  letter,  and  they  exacted 
every  dollar  they  could  from  our  people.  Such  was  the  course  of 
the  General  Government  towards  California,  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  President  Polk.  Now  let  us  see  what  it  was  under 
President  Taylor. 


CHAPTER  II. 


President  Taylor,  or  Old  Zac,  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  strong- 
ly sympathized  with  the  hardy  pioneers  of  California,  in  their 
anomolous  and  unprotected  condition.  He  had  been  the  most  of 
his  life,  living  among  the  pioneers  of  tho  West  and  South-west, 
and  he  could  appreciate  their  wants  and  the  many  disadvantages 
under  which  they  always  had  to  labor.  After  he  was  inaugurated 
President,  he  took  the  earliest  opportunity  to  communicate  the 
deep  sympathy  and  interest  he  felt  for  us.  He  sent  an  agent 
here  to  say,  that  if  the  people  of  California  should  feel  disposed 
to  take  the  responsibility  upon  themselves  to  form  a  State  Gov- 
ernment, he  would  use  all  of  his  official  and  personal  influence  to 
have  our  new  State  admitted  into  the  Union.  The  people,  how- 
ever, had  determined  to  do  this  very  thing,,  before  they  had  heard 
1* 


10 


111 


from  the  President,  yet  tbey  felt  gratified  to  know  that  President 
Taylor  was  not  only  with  them,  but  that  he  approved  of  their 
action.  A  State  Convention  was  called  by  proclamation  from 
Gen.  Riley,  the  Military  Governor  of  the  Province.  That  Con- 
vention adopted  a  State  Constitution  and  it  was  submitted  to  the 
people,  and  by  them  approved.  At  the  same  time,  two  Representa- 
tives to  Congress  were  elected,  also  a  Governor,  Lieutenant 
Governor,  and  Members  of  both  Houses  of  the  State  Legislature. 
The  Legislature  met  in  San  Jose,  in  the  latter  part  of  December, 
in  1849,  and  organized  the  State  Government  and  elected  two 
United  States  Senators.  Our  Senators  and  Representatives  left 
us  for  Washington  on  the  first  of  January,  1850,  with  our  State 
Constitution,  to  apply  for  the  admission  of  California  mto  the 
Union. 

They  submitted  the  Constitution  to  the  President  and  he  com- 
municated it  to  Congress,  and  pressed  upon  both  Houses  the  pro- 
priety and  justice  of  our  admission  into  the  Union.  He  told 
them  that  the  preceding  Congress  had  left  us  without  any  pro- 
tection whatever,  to  our- persons  and  property;  that  it  had  neglect- 
ed to  provide  a  Territorial  Government  for  California,  and  that 
the  people  of  California,  in  taking  the  responsibility  upon  them- 
selves to  establish  a  State  Government,  had  done  no  more  than 
was  to  have  been  expected  from  them.  Now  what  was  the  action 
of  Congress  on  receiving  this  Constitution,  and  the  President's 
Message  which  accompanied  it  ?  How  did  it  treat  our  application 
for  admission  as  a  State  into  the  Union  ?  The  facts  show  that  the 
proposition  was  by  a  large  body  of  the  members  of  both  houses  of 
Congress,  hissed  and  scouted  at.  They  charged  that  our  prayer 
for  admission,  contained  an  unheard  of  request;  that  it  was  inso- 
lent and  impudent.  Some  went  so  far  as  to  charge  us  wi.h  being 
a  gang  of  outlaws,  from  all  countries;  that  our  poeplc  were  princi- 
pally composed  of  Indians,  Negroes,  Hottentots,  and  Kanakas. 
This  description  of  our  countrymen  reminds  us  of  Tom  Moore's 
account  of  Norfolk,  Va.  He  said  the  inhabitants  of  that  city 
were  made  up  of"  dogs,  niggers  and  democrats." 

The  excitement  produced  by  our  application,  it  was  soon  found 
could  bo  turned  to  account;  could  be  made  the  m^ans  of  giving 
notoriety  and  prominence  to  certain  aspirants  for  the  Presidency. 
All  their  satelites  and  understrappers  were  required  to  set  up  a 
great  commotion  against  oui*  prayer  for  admission  and  to  proclaim 


11 

that  the  Union  was  in  danger.  Suddenly  and  unexpectedly  the 
proposition  for  the  admission  of  California,  became  unnecessarily 
mixed  up  with  the  Slavery  agitation.  Northern  men  and  South- 
ern men  determined  to  fill,  if  possible,  the  measure  of  their  fame 
over  the  excitement.  The  whole  country  became  profoundly  and 
sensibly  agitated  and  alarmed.  For  a  while  the  stability  of  the 
Union  really  did  appear  to  be  in  peril,  as  for  months  in  Wash- 
ington, the  political  storm  continued  to  shake  and  disturb  the 
repose  of  the  country.    There 

"  System  with  system  waged  horrible  discord, 
And  the  maddening  wheels  of  brazen  fury  raged." 

Indeed  many  supposed  that  the  Union  was  about  at  an  end; 
that  anarchy  was  already  beginning  to  wave  its  horrid  scepter 
over  the  broken  altars  of  the  Republic.  But  fortunately  for  these 
agitators,  they  discovered  in  time  the  fact  that  they  would  be 
the  first  to  suffer  for  their  rashness.  Their  persecution  of  Gen. 
Taylor,  because  he  refused  to  become  a  party  to  their  schemes,  led 
to  his  death.  The  people  knew  that  these  agitators  and  conspiri- 
tors,  were  the  cause  of  the  death  of  this  noble  old  soldier  and 
patriot,  and  they  resented  the  outrage.  Immediately  on  the  heel 
of  his  death,  came  the  declaration  from  all  parts  of  California, 
announcing  to  the  Government,  the  important  fact,  that  unless  our 
State  was  very  soon  admitted  into  the  Union,  we  would  organize 
an  Independent  Republic  on  this  side  of  the  Continent.  These 
things  had  the  desired  effect.  The  North,  and  the  South  then 
made  a  compromise  of  their  differences,  and  California  Avas  admit- 
ted into  the  confederacy,  and  our  Senators  and  Representatives 
were  allowed  to  take  their  seats. 


CHAPTER  III. 


The  death  of  Q^n.  Taylor  left  us,  with  the  exception  of  our 
Senators  and  Representatives,  without  any  very  especial  friend  or 
friends  in  Washington.  Mr.  Fillmore,  who  by  the  death  of  Gen. 
Taylor  became  President  of  the  United  States,  always  acted,  we 
regret  to  say,  as  if  he  regarded  California  as  a.  place  foi  official 
plunder,  to  which  he  could  send  his  understrappers,  and  favorites 


12 


to  be  fed  and  clothed  by  the  people  of  California.  In  this  way 
Californians  have  been  compelled  to  feed  and  clothe  many  a  worth- 
less loafer  from  the  Atlantic  States.  And  we  are  doing  that  very 
thing  now,  under  the  administration  of  President  Pierce.  Not 
a  steamer  arrives  here  from  Panama,  that  does  not  bring  out  some 
favorite  of  the  General  Government,  from  the  Atlantic  States, 
with  letters  from  the  President,  or  some  of  his  Secretaries  to  the 
Federal  Officers  in  California,  requesting  that  a  place  be  provided 
for  such  and  such  a  one.  The  request  is  always  understood  as  an 
order.  Of  course  these  Atlantic  officers  cannot  be  provided  for 
here,  unless  a  Californian  is  dismissed  from  the  service,  to  make 
room  for  them.  Such  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  "  Powers  That 
Be,"  in  Washington,  is  a  flagrant  outrage  on  our  people,  and  an 
insult  to  this  State.  This  practice  of  shipping  officers  out  here 
from  Washington,  to  displace  Californians,  had  better  be  stopped, 
or  the  General  Government  may  find,  that  we  will  take  means  to 
put  a  stop  to  it  ourselves. 

On  becoming  Pesident,  Mr.  Fillmore  acted  as  if  he  intended  to 
take  the  earliest  pportunity  to  show  his  cont^npt  for  us.  He 
could  find  no  mani»  California  to  fill  the  placeof  Collector  of  the 
Port  of  San  Francisc  except  one  who  had  voluntarily  expatria- 
ted himself  from  the  b  te;,and  one  too  whom  the  people  here  had 
distinctly  and  repeatedly  refused  to  confer  hanors  upon.  The 
Hon.  Thomas  Butler  King,  was  appointed  to  that  office  and  he 
and  a  whole  ship-load  of  subordinate  officials,  were  transported 
out  here  from  the  Atlantic  States,  at  public  expense,  to  displace 
men  who  had  been  the  pioneers  of  the  State.  Some  of  the  men 
displaced  were  the  chief  means  of  conquering  and  acquiring  the 
Teritority  from  Mexico.  A  few  evenings  after  their  arrival  in 
California,  many  of  them  had  a  grand  drunk,  in  the  Custom  House 
together.  Some  twenty-five  or  thirty  baskets  of  Champagne,  and 
a  large  quantity  of  oth  n*  kinds  of  liquors,  very  sudenly  •'  dried 
up  "  that  night.  Tliey  all  had  a  high  old  time,  well  and  they 
might,  for  they  were  the  favorites  of  Uncle  Sam,  and  of  course 
they  and  the  Federal  authorities  at  Washington,  couM  well  cele- 
brate their  triumph  over  the  pioneers  of  the  State.  But  where 
now  are  these  pets  of  the  Government.  They  are  gone,  all  gone 
"  back  to  the  vile  dust  from  whence  they  sprung."  They  are  now 
living  in  the  Atlantic  States.  There  they  will  ever  remain, 
"  unwept  and  unhonored  "  by  the  pioneers  of  Californ'".    The 


13 


old  Californians,  however,  will  never  forgot  that  insult  to  them, 
and  to  their  State.  As  was  to  be  expected,  Mr.  King  became  a 
defaulter,  or  was  charged  with  being  a  defaulter.  After  holding 
the  office  about  two  years  he  resigned  the  Collectorship,  and  once 
more  left  the  country. 

There  are  some  events  connected  with  the  brilliant  career  of 
Mr.  King,  in  California,  that  we  aannot  omit  preserving,  for  the 
especial  benefit  of  tlie  Federal  Government  and  an  inquiring 
posterity.  The  great  firo  of  the  4th  of  May  1861,  swept  away 
full  two  thirds  of  the  buildings  of  San  Francisco,  and  among  the 
number  was  the  Custom  House  on  the  corner  of  Montgomery 
and  California  streets.  The  fourth  of  May,  was  a  sad  and  melan- 
choly day,  to  the  people  of  San  Francisco.  Millions  of  dollars 
had  been  lost  by  the  people,  and  n  any  felt  that  they  were  a 
doomed  community.  On  the  fifth  of  May,  Mr.  King  succeded  in 
renting  the  house,  on  the  corner  of  Kearny  and  Washington 
streets,  belonging  to  Messrs.  Palmer,  Cook  &  Co.,  for  the  Custom 
House.  On  the  morning  of  the  sixth  of  May,  he  assembled  his 
force  to  remove  the  treasure  from  the  vault  of  the  ruins  of  the  old 
Custom  House  building.  They  met  about  11  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  armed  with  cutlasses,  and  pistols,  surrounded  by  a  few 
carts.  Mr.  King  mounted  the  walls  of  the  vault,  surrounded  by 
tvo  sentinels,  and  ordered  his  men,  to  prize  open  the  door.  They 
of  course  obeyed.  One  cart  was  filled.  Then  Mr.  King  gave 
orders  to  form  line.  Messrs.  Hopkins  and  Green,  Deputy  Collec- 
tors, occupied  the  front  of  tiie  army,  Mr.  King  leading  off,  with  a 
sword  in  one  hand,  and  a  pistol  in  the  other.  In  this  way  they 
proceeded  to  remove  the  funds.  It  required  several  cart  loads,  to 
carry  it  away. 

By  this  time,  the  whole  city  was  in  a  comomtion,  and  many 
became  very  indignant,  as  Mr.  King's  manner  of  removing  the 
treasure,  implied  thai  he  apprehended  th6  people  of  San 
Francisco  would  undertake  to  rob  the  General  Government,  in 
broad  daylight.  Many  an  old  rusty  gun,  and  broken  sword — 
many  an  old  hoe-handle,  spade  and  shovel  tvas  raised  on  that 
remarkable  day,  to  c^lute  the  army,  as  .1  passed  in  triumph 
through  Montgomery  street  1  When  the  last  load  was  on  its  way 
through  Washington  street,  some  wags  started  ahead  of  it,  and 
induced  the  waiters  in  the  Washington  Street  Restaurant,  to 
make  a  charge  on  it  \^  ith  carving  knives.    As  soon  as  they  at> 


14 


tacked  the  train,  some  of  the  valiant  army  fled.  The  Collector, 
however,  flourised  his  sword  and  pistol  and  again  rallied  his 
army,  and  finally  reached  his  quarters  in  safety.  This  was  a 
great  victory  of  the  General  Government  over  the  people  of 
California,  and  a  great  triumph  to  Mr.  Collector  King.  It  was 
also  an  eventful  and  remarkable  day  in  California.  Indeed  no 
age  and  no  country,  has  ever  witnessed  such  an  extraordinary 
eveiit  I  As  yet,  we  regret  to  say.  Congress  has  never  ordered  a 
gold  medal  to  be  struck,  in  commemoration  of  that  brilliant 
achievement  I  Some  of  the  wags  about  town  at  that  time  had,  I 
believe,  some  tin  and  pewter  ones  struck,  at  their  own  expense,  in 
honor  of  that  great  event. 

Now  it  is  said  the  French  King  had  the  assistance  of  ten  thous- 
and men,  to  march  up  hill  and  then  march  down  again  ;  but  our 
brave  United  States  Collector,  in  an  enemy's  city,  with  but  a  few 
troops  and  a  partial  supply  of  arms  and  ammunition,  conducted 
several  victorious  marches  from  street  to  street,  with  his  baggage 
wagons,  without  losing  a  dollar,  and  succeeded  in  safely  deposit- 
ing his  treasure,  in  the  new  Custom  House  vault.  Caesar,  Pom- 
pey,  Xenophon,  Alexander,  Tamerlane,  Ghengis-Khan  Charle- 
magne, Washington,  Napoleon,  Wellington,  Jadkson,  Scott,  and 
Taylor,  never  accomplished  such  a  magnificent  military  exploit ! 
We  think  this  achievement  ought  to  make  his  military  abilities, 
ample  for  any  emergency.  The  Custom  Ho'ise  pcet  of  that  day, 
thus  celebrated  the  event,  in  song  and  story  : 

"  The  money  had  to  be  moved  away  ; 
So  he  summond  his  fighting  men  one  day, 


And  fixed  them  all  in  marcning  array, 
Like  a  lot  of  mules  hitched  on  to  a  aray, 

Ri  Turin  Rn!       ' 

Then  he  drew  his  revolver  and  told  'em  to  start, 
But  be  sure  to  keep  their  eyes  on  the  cart, 
And  not  be  at  all  faint  of  heart, 

But  to  tread  right  up,  and  try  to  look  smart !  ' 

<    Ri  Turin  Ru ! 

Then  each  man  grasped  his  sword  and  gun, 
The  babies  squalled,  and  the  women  rui>, 
And  all  agreed,  that  the  King  was  one 
Of  the  greatest  warriors  under  the  sun  1 

Bi  Turin  Ru  "! 

The  author  of  this  celebrated  song,  is  a  Mr.  Frank  Ball,  of  Bos- 
ton. When  it  made  its  appearance,  almost  every  one  in  town, 
that  could  sing,  was  singing  it.    Even"  the  ladies  played  it  on 


IB 

the  piano.  At  Clayton's  Saloon,  in  Commercial  St.,  where  Mr. 
Ball  resided,  hundreds,  night  after  night,  collected  to  hear  him 
sing  and  play  it  on  the  piano. 

Three  months  after  this  brilliant  military  achievement  was 
accomplished,  there  appeared  a  correspondence  from  Washington 
in  Mr.  King's  organ,  the  Morning  Post,  published  in  San  Francis- 
co, from  which  we  make  the  following  extract.  After  alluding 
to  the  revolutionary,  and  nullification  feeling  in  South  Carolina, 
which  appeared  to  trouble  the  General  Government  very  much, 
the  correspondent  says: — 

"  I  know  of  one  man  who,  if  he  were  in  the  cabinet,  as  he 
ought  to  be — and  it  was  at  one  time,  the  general  expectation  and 
hope,  that  he  would  be  called  to  preside  over  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment— would  do  much,  very  much,  towards  nerving  up  the  arm 
of  the  General  Government,  to  take  such  prompt  and  energetic 
steps,  as  would  prevent  South  Carolina  from  marching  out  of  the 
Union,  or  if  she  got  out,  would  make  a  deplorable  case  of  her,  for 
the  wicked  act.  That  man  is  Thomas  Butler  King,  the  present 
collector  of  the  port  of  San  Francisco.  A  leading  and  distin- 
guished Whig,  who  is  the  friend  of  President  Fillmore,  assured 
me  recently,  that  he  believed,  that  the  only  thing  that  the  Admin- 
istration could  do,  to  save  itself,  would  be  to  send  Mr.  Secretary 
Graham  abroad,  and  supply  his  place  in  the  Cabinet,  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  Thomas  Butler  King." 

When  this  singular  news  reached  us,  all  who  read  it  were 
amazed,  and  felt  not  a  little  gratified  to  learn,  such  highly  im- 
portant intelligence.  They  felt  that  Providence  had  paid  a  sig- 
nal favor  to  onr  State.  To  have  among  us  the  only  man  who 
could  save  the  country,  was  an  honor  that  we  could  not  have  ex- 
pected. When  I  read  it  I  was  very  forcibly  reminded  of  a  similar 
case,  that  took  place  in  one  of  the  mountain  counties  in  Old  Vir- 
ginia. It  was  the  county  of  Page,  well  known  as  one  of  the  three 
counties  that  make  up  what  is  called  the  Tenth  Legion,  where  it 
is  said,  the  people  are  still  voting  for  Gen.  Jackson,  for  Presi- 
dent. >     ' 

A  man  by  the  name  of  McPhearson  had  represented  that  coun- 
ty for  several  years  in  the  State  Legislature.  During  his  last  term 
he  became  very  dissipated.  On  his  return  he  kept  up  this  debauch 
for  about  three  weeks.  The  effect  of  this  long  dissipation  resulted 
in  his  being  taken  sick.  His  physician  however  succeeded  in  re- 
storing him  from  his  sick  bed  a  few  days  before  the  mohthly  conirt 
was  to  be  held.    This  occurrence  took  place  some  weeks  after  the 


16 


cholera  had  reached  Quebec  in  Canada.  While  Mac.  waa  in  this 
nervous  condition,  he  had  a  dream' one  night,  in  which  he  imagined 
the  Lord  had  appeared  to  him  and  informed  him  that  if  ho  did 
not  reform,  he  would  send  the  cholera  from  Quebec  immediately 
to  old  Fage  county,  for  his  benefit  alone.  Early  in  the  morning 
of  the  fourth  Monday  of  the  month,  the  regular  day  for  the  meet- 
ing of  the  County  Court,  Col.  McPhearson  made  his  appearance 
in  the  streets.  He  assembled  the  Dutch,  for  the  people  there  are 
naostly  all  Dutch,  and  informed  them  that  he  was  determined  to 
reform — that  the  Lord  had  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream  during 
the  past  night  and  after  painting  cholera  in  letters  of  fire  on  the 
clouds,  the  Lord  informed  him  that  if  he  did  not  reform  and  become 
a  true  friend  and  savior  to  the  Dutch,  Be  would  send  the  cholera 
from  Quebec  to  old  Page  county,  and  he  would  be  the  only  person 
who  should  be  attacked  with  it.  Of  course  tliis  statement  greatly 
surprised  the  Dutch. 

Doctor  Thompson,  a  man  of  great  influence,  and  withal  a  wag, 
listened  to  McPhearson  with  apparent  astonishment.  After  he 
bad  finished  his  statement  to  the  Dutch,  the  Doctor  said  that  it 
was  the  strangest  thing  in  the  world,  that  the  Lord  should  select 
amanin  old  I'age county  who  should  be  the  only  person  who  could 
save  the  Dutch.  Then  said  he,  "Mac,  I  have  always  believed  that  we 
do  not  spell  the  English  language  correctly,  and  as  the  Lord  does 
all  things  right,  and  has  painted  cholera  in  letters  of  fire  on  the 
clouds  to  you,  how  did  He  spell  it  ?"  This  was  a  poser  to  Mac. 
"  Why,"  says  Mac,  "  spell  it — spell  it— why  he  spelt  it  as  it  is  in  the 
papers."  Thompson  then  appealed  to  the  Dutch  not  to  believe  a 
word  Mao.  said,  unless  he  told  them  how  the  Lord  spelt  cholera. 
The  Dutch  all  re^>onded  that  they  would  not  believe,  a  word  he 
said  lu^lesft  he  told  them  how  the  Lord  spelt  cholera.  McPhear- 
son found  that  all  his  political  prospects  would  be  blasted  with 
the  Dutch,  unles  he  satisfied  them  on  this  poibt.  He  therefore 
commenced  to  spell  it,  and  started  with  a  K  and  spelt  it  Kolry  ! 

As  McPhearson  could  not  tell  h0*w  the  Lord  spelt  cholera,  thus 
en4ed  all  his  hop^  of  saving  the  Ddatch,  aad  as  Mr.  King  could 
not  get  into  the  Navy  Depavtmeat,  thus  ended  all  his  hopes  of 
saving  the  country.    ^ 

Perhafte,  Mr.  FiUmore  and  his  Cabinet  after  l^ey  had  heard  of 
Mr,  King's  great  military  achievement  in  San  Francisco,  and 
after  the^  had  read  his  celebrated  Report  on  California,  and 


It 

thought  of  the  many  political  dangers  which  surrounded  them,  they 
felt  the  necessity  of  calling  him  to  their  aid.  And  as  he  was  at 
that  time  holding  but  a  subordinate  post  under  the  General  Gov- 
ernment, they  were  no  doubt  forcibly  reminded  of  the  words  of 
the  groat  dramatic  poet : 

"Sure  He  that  made  him  (King) 
With  such  large  discourse, 
Looking  before  and  after, 
Gave  him  not  such  God-like  reason 
To  rest  in  him  Unused." 

In  Mr.  King's  Report  on  California,  he  informs  the  Federal  Gov- 
crment  that  steam  propellers,  such  propellers,  for  instance,  as  those 
gay  old  ocean  loafers,  the  Chesapeake,  (of  blessed  memory,)  the  Eu- 
dora,  Washington,  Edith,  Warren,  Preble,  &c.,  &c.,  were  the  most 
suitable  steamers  to  navfgate  the  waters  of  the  Pacific.  What  an 
idea  1  It  is  a  well  known  fact,  that  out  of  something  like  twenty 
steam  propellers  sent  round  to  this  country  from  the  Atlantic 
States,  more  than  two  thirds  of  them  either  foundered  at  sea  soon 
after  they  came  here,  or  were  cast  away  upon  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific.  Their  voyages  have  all  ended.  No  more  will  they  tra- 
verse the  ocean  and  contend  with  the  "bounding  billows."  They 
have  gone  down  to  a  watery  grave,  never  more  to  be  resurrected. 
Farewell,  old  tubs,  the  days  of  your  glory  are  over.  May  you 
slumber  on  the  shores  where  you  "  caved  in,"  surrounded  by 
the  roar  of  that  ocean,  w^hose  waves  now  dash  and  die  around 
you.  The  sea-gulls  will  sing  your  perpetual  requiem,  and  make 
your  broken  fragments  their  dwelling-place  and  home.  Again  we 
sa:y,  farewell,  old  tubs. 

With  all  these  evidences  of  Mr.  King's  foresight  and  abilities. 
President  Fillmore  might  well  suppose,  that  he  could  make  a 
forced  march  into  South  Carolina,  with  only  ten  men,  and  con- 
quer that  obstinate  little  State  in  one  day.  And  with  his  ideas 
and  opinions  of  Ocean  Steam  Navigation,  he  might  make  his  pro- 
pellers sweep  the  seas,  while  the  terrific  roar  of  their  cannon, 
would  "cleave  the  broad  main,  and  shake  the  astonished  poles." 
But  as  the  country  was  fortunately  saved  from  dissolution  and 
overthrow,  without  Mr.  King's  aid,-  that  was  the  last  of  our  val- 
iant Collector.  ..i.  ,  _ 

It  is  evident,  however,  that  Mr.  King  never  would  ilttrfc  crft 
such  a  ridiculous  figure,  in  the  removal  of  the  treasure  from  the 
old  Custom  House  vault  to  the  new  one,  had  he  not  considered 
2 


18 

that  he  would  have  been  reprimanded  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  had  he  neglected  to  use  the  means  he  did  to  guard 
the  public  funds.  Mr.  Corwin  always  said  the  people  of  Califor- 
nia were  thieves,  and  that  he  could  not  trust  any  of  us.  For  this 
reason,  he  sent  out  here  a  spy  to  watch  U3 ;  for  this  reason  he  re- 
fused to  allow  any  of  our  people  to  hold  office  ;  for  this  reason  he 
shipped  out  here,  men  to  fill  all  the  places  under  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment Although  I  have  commented  rather  severely  upon  Mr. 
King's  conduct  while  Collector  here,  it  is  but  just  that  I  should 
vindicate  his  reputation  in  many  respects.  He  was,  with  all  his 
faults,  deeply  wronged  by  the  Federal  Administration,  as  well  as 
by  many  of  those  who  lived  upon  his  bounty.  He  could  have  had 
reason  at  most  any  time  in  saying,  "  save  me  from  the  friends  that 
surround  me,  and  I  will  take  pare  of  my  ^enemies."  His  appoint- 
ment was  made  under  very  peculiar  circumstances.  Mr.  Fillmore 
first  nominated  Ccl.  James  Collier  for  re-appointment  as  Collec- 
tor of  San  Francisco,  but  he  was  rejected  by  the  Senate.  He 
then  nominated  a  gentleman  in  Philadelphia,  who  refused  to  ac- 
cept. John  A.  Collier,  and  the  friends  of  Col.  James  Collier, 
then  urged  Mr.  Fillmore  to  appoint  Mr.  King.  The  President 
finally  acceded  to  their  request,  and  Mr.  King  was  nominated 
to,  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate.  He  came  here,  as  I  have  be- 
fore said,  to  vake  possession  of  his  office,  with  a  whole  ship  load  of 
subordinates,  and  immediately  became  a  candidate  for  the  Uni- 
ted States  Senate.  It  is  evident  that  he  solicited  this  office  as 
the  candidate  of  the  Federal  Administration.  What  an  outrage 
was  this  upon  the  State  of  California.  Here  was  a  man  hold- 
ing the  highest  civil  office  in  California,  under  the  General 
Government,  bringing  to  bear  all  the  power  and  patronage  of 
the  Administralion  to  have  .himself  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  he  not  a  citizen  of  the  State  1  All  who  opposed  such 
an. act  of  usurpation  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  Government  to- 
wards this  State,  were  denounced  by  the  authorities  at  Washing- 
ton. We  were  all  proscribed,  calumniated  and  maligned  without 
measure,  by  oamerbus  gangs  of  new-comers  in  the  employ  of  the 
General  Government.  We  were  told  by  them  that  the  President 
would  allow  no  man  to  hold  office  under  him,  who  did  not  endorse 
Mr.  King's  :preten8ions  to  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and 
who  would  not  humbly  bow  the  knee,  and  acknowledge  the  Pres- 
ident's right  to  dictate  to  the  people  of  California,  whom  the;y 


19 


should  elect  to  represeat  them  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
There  was  one  man,  then  the  editor  of  the  California  Courier,  the 
accredited  organ  of  the  Administration,  (the  writer  of  this  work,) 
who  treated  such  language  with  the  contempt  it  deserved,  and 
who  defied  the  power  of  the  Administration,  and  hissed  and 
scorned,  all  threats  and  overtures.  He  told  these  Government 
Officials,  that  he  asked  them  no  favors  ;  that  if  he  could  not  get 
the  printing  of  the  General  Government,  without  yielding  up  his 
rights  as  a  citizen,  and  his  sense  of  duty  and  justice  to  the  Statt 
of  his  adoption,  he  would  suffer  his  arm  to  wither  to  its  shoulder, 
and  his  tongue  to  blister  in  his  throat,  before  he  would  comply 
with  their  demands.  I  never  did  yield  an  inch  to  the  Authorities 
at  Washington,  or  to  the  emmissaries  they  had  sent  out  here. 
After  they  had  failed  in  forcing  Mr.  King  upon  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia— after  the  LegislatTre  of  California  had  refused,  on  one 
hundred  and  forty-two  ballots,  to  elect  Mr.  King  to  the  United 
States  Senate,  his  friends  met  at  midnight  in  the  C  apiol,  at  San 
Jose,  and  there  passed  resolutions,  reading  me  out  of  the  Whig 
party. 

Strange  to  say,  a  majority  of  these  very  members  owed  their 
election  to  the  Legislature  to  my  labors,  and  to  my  pecuniary 
sacrifices  in  that  campaign.  In  the  resolutions  they  passed, 
they  charged  me  with  Mr.  King's  defeat,  and  sundry  other 
very  grave  offences.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  have  these 
resolutions  endorsed  by  the  Whig  General  Committee,  of  the  city 
and  county  of  San  Francisco.  This  Legislative  Committee,  came 
quiety  to  San  Francisco  and  deliberated  for  two  or  three  nights 
in  secret  conclave  with  the  General  Committee,  over  these  res- 
olutions. Mr.  King,  it  was  said,  was  present  each  night,  but 
I  was  not  permitted  to  know  of  this  conspiracy  against  me,  or  to 
be  there  to  defend  myself  against  my  accusers.  Although  a  ma 
jority  of  the  members  of  the  Committee  were  composed  of  Mr 
King's friends,yet  the  resolutions  were, by  a  majority  of  one,  final 
ly  laid  upon  the  table,  from  which  they  were  never  resurrected 
The  Legislative  Committee  soon  after,  left  the  city.  Their  reso 
lutions  however,  were  sent  on  to  Washington,  to  be  a  standing 
condemnation  against  me.  All  those  who  participated  in  that 
infernal  attempt,  to  break  me  down  with  my  party,  and  the  Fed- 
eral Administration  and  the  people  of  California,  have  my  per- 
mission to  glory  over  that  act  of  petty  tyranny.    Where  are  all 


20 


these  men  now,  and  where  am  I  ?  The  majority  of  them,  have 
cither  left  the  State,  or  have  sunk  to  a  profound  obscurity.  I 
would  not  exchange  conditions  with  them,  for  all  the  gold  in  Cal- 
ifornia. Never  was  such  a  compliment  paid  to  so  humble  a  citi- 
zen before,  as  was  paid  me  by  Mr.  King,  and  his  friends,  on  that 
occasion.  I  had  the  credit  of  defeating  the  Federal  Administra- 
tion in  this  State,  with  all  its  vast  patronage  and  power.  A 
small  young  David,  slaying  another  great  Goliah.  Well,  if  I  did 
do  it,  thank  Heaven,  I  am  proud  of  it,  and  I  would  like  to  have 
it  inscribed  upon  my  tombstone,  that  I  did,  single  handed,  resist 
and  defeat  the  attempt  of  the  Authorities  at  Washington,  to 
trample  on  the  rights  of  the  people  of  California,  and  the  Sover- 
ignty  of  this  State.  I  hope  no  ono  will  ever  be  permitted  to 
make  way  with  these  resolutions,  filed  away  among  the  archives 
at  Washington.  The  best  of  all  these  strange  proceedings,  is  the 
fact  that  the  parties  engaged  in  that  aflfair,  cannot  deny  the 
charge  I  make  against  them,  for  their  signatures  are  all  signed  to 
that  celebrated  document. 

But  with  all  Mr.  King's  faults,  ho  should  not  be  hold  responsi- 
ble for  all  the  offences  with  which  he  is  charged.  The  adminis- 
tration under  which  he  served,  drove  him  to  extremes.  It  not 
only  sustained  him  in  his  attempt  to  force  himself  upon  the  peo- 
ple of  this  State,  but  it  gave  him  all  the  encouragement  it  pos- 
sibly could,  without  coming  to  an  open  rupture  with  the  State  of 
California.  As  we  have  said  before,  all  those  Whigs  who  were 
opposed  to  Mr.  King's  pretentions  to  a  seat  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  from  California,  were  proscribed  by  the  Administration. 
Piles  on  piles  of  documents  were  sent  on  to  Washington,  by 
Federal  a])pointees,  shipped  herefrom  the  Atlantic  States,  against 
some  of  the  best  citizens  of  California,  who  unfortunately  declared 
that  Mr.  King,  while  holding  the  most  lucrative  ofiice  under  the 
Federal  Government,  ought  not  to  attempt  to  claim  also  the 
highest  office  within  the  gift  of  this  State.  It  is  well  known  that 
he  left  the  Custom  House,  for  weeks  at  a  time,  to  canvass,  and 
electioneer  with  the  members  of  the  Legislature,  to  be  elected  to 
the  United  States  Senate.  Mr.  Fillmore's  conduct  in  the  whole 
of  this  contest  was  "both  ridiculous  and  contemptible."  These 
are  the  very  words  of  Daniel  Webster,  as  he  applied  them  to  Mr. 
Fillmore,  when  speaking  .>f  his  conduct  towards  the  people  of 
California.    He  told  Mr.  Fillmore,  that  the  men  he  had  picked 


up  from  Washingtion,  and  shipped  out  to  the  Pacific,  at  public 
expense,  were  interested  in  misrepresenting  the  independent 
citizens  of  this  country — that  California  was  peopled  by  a  bold 
and  enterprising  population — that  ho  himself  knew  of  some  of  the 
most  enlightened  merchants,  and  best  citizens  in  California,  who 
would  take  no  public  office  whatever,  and  who  reprobated  the 
domineering,  and  insulting  conduct  of  Federal  Officials  towards 
all  those  who  would  not  bow  the  knee  to  Federal  usurpation  in 
California. 

During  the  whole  time  that  Mr.  King  was  Collector  of  this 
Port,  he  was  annoyed,  and  harrassed  almost  to  death  by  Dorwin, 
and  others,  sending  out  here  men  from  the  Atlantic  States,  to  be 
appointed  by  him  to  office.  Not  a  steamer  arrived  from  Panama 
that  did  not  bring  some  one  to  California  with  a  request  to  Mr. 
King  to  appoint  a  beneficiary  of  the  General  Government,  to 
office  from  the  Atlantic  States.  He  could  hardly  keep  a  Califor- 
nian  in  office  much  over  one  month  before  he  had  to  turn  him  out 
to  make  room  for  some  Government  Official,  shipped  out  here  at 
Government  expense.  Mr.  Corwin,  always  had  a  deep  seated 
dislike  to  the  people  of  this  country,  and  especially  the  pioneers. 
He  has  told  me  and  others,  that  ho  looked  upon  the  majority  of 
our  people  as  dishonest.  Ho  was  the  man  who  desired  that  our 
army  in  Mexico  might  be  welcomed  there  with  "  bloody  hands, 
and  inhospitable  graves."  No  wonder  then  that  he  took  every 
means  to  insult  those  who  had  conquered  California  from  Mexico. 

What  is  most  strange,  is  the  singular  fact  that  some  of  these 
very  men  from  Washington,  who  Mr.  King  had  thus  fed  and 
clothed  by  his  bounty,  deserted  and  turned  upon  him.  But  the 
worst  of  all,  was  the  fact  that  the  ingrate  Corwin  deserted  him 
also,  when  he  found-  Mr.  King  could  not  be  elected  United  States 
Senator.  Not  only  this,  but  hcmade  him  out  a  defaulter,  and  left 
him  to  his  enemies  to  settle  his  accounts.  Had  he  succeeded  in 
being  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate,  he  never  would 
have  been  charged  with  defalcation.  That  Mr.  King  used 
the  public  mjiiey  I  as  verily  believe  as  I  exist,  but  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  ho  ever  used  one  dollar  that  the  Administration  did 
not  either  wink  at  or  permit.  He  never  should  have  been  charged 
with  being  a  defaulter,  and  the  Secretary  should  have  given  him  a 
clear  reciept.  Mr.  King  left  here  poor,  and  if  he  spent  the 
Government's  money,  he  did  so  to  enable  the  Administration  to 


um?>m) 


22 


rule  tho  people,  and  the  State  of  California.  Porhapfl  no  public 
officer  was  tvcr  moro  sliaQicfuUy  treated,  than  was  Mr.  King  hy 
Mr.  Corwin* 

There  was  one  fault  which  Mr.  King  had,  which  no  man  ought 
to  excuse  him  for, — he  was  eternally  recommending  California  to 
the  Federal  Government  and  the  people  of  tho  Atlantic  States, 
in  a  false  light.  In  his  Report  on  California,  he  recommended 
the  Federal  Government  to  use  no  other  steamers  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean  but  propellers.  Ho  also,  in  that  Report,  urged  Congress  to 
tax  the  miners  so  much  per  head^for  tho  construction  of  roads  in 
California.  Now  every  person  on  this  coast  knows  that  most  all 
steam  propellers  employed  out  here  have  been  long  since  lost  or 
abandoned  with  the  exception  of  one.  As  to  taxing  the  miners  ex- 
clusively for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  fund  for  the  construction  of 
roads,  the  proposition  is  simply  ridiculous.  Had  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment attempted  to  carry  into  effect  this  recommendation,  it 
would  have  failed,  for  the  people  of  all  classes  would  have  resisted 
it  by  force  of  arms.  It  is  strange  that  Mr.  King  should  have  made 
himself  so  ridiculous.  The  miners  of  California  have  already 
voluntarily  built  a  large  number  of  roads  in  the  state  at  their 
own  expense,  at  a  cost  perhaps  of  two  millions  of  dollars,  and  the 
Federal  Government  are  now  enjoying  the  profit  of  their  im- 
provements free  of  charee.  But  had  it  undertaken  to  tax  the 
miners  as  a  class,  it  would  never  have  raised  one  dollar  from 
them. 

The  arrogance  shown  by  Mr.  King  in  speaking  of  California 
is  surprising.  He  must  be  inexcusably  ignorant  of  this  country 
or  he  is  seeking  to  injure  us  with  the  people  on  the  other  side  of 
the  continent.  He  has  net  long  since  made  them  a  speech  in 
which  ho  undertakes  to  speak  ex  cdthedra  of  this  country.  In 
that  speech  he  states  that  California  can  never  be  an  agricultural 
country.  What  nonsense  is  this  ?  Why  does  he  make  himself 
such  a  fool  ?  Why,  we  not  only  produce  from  tho  soil  moro  than 
we  can  consume,  but  we  are  now  shipping  flour  and  wheat  to  the 
Atlantic  States,  Chili,  Australia,  China  and  Spanish  America,  and 
potatoes  and  other  vegetables  to  all  parts  of  the  Pacific.  The 
farmers  of  California  can  produce  more  serial  grain  and  vegeta- 
bles of  all  kinds  to  the  acre,  than  any  other  people  on  the  globe. 
Let  Mr.  King  and  all  other  croakers  "  dry  up"  about  California. 
The  people  of  this  State,  by  their  own  unaid  3d  efforts,  without 


18 

any  State  Legislation,  have  by  their  own  voluntary  labor  con- 
structed roads,  tunnels,  canals,  bridges,  ditches  and  other  im- 
provcmeuts  within  the  last  five  years,  at  an  aggregate  cost  '^f 
something  like  $30,000,000.  What  other  people  in  any  state  of 
the  Union  could  or  would  have  made  such  outlays  without  legis- 
lative log-rolling  and  enactments — without  the  aid  of  foreign 
cnpital,  accomplished  so  much?  We  are,  on  this  coast,  progres- 
sive, and  are  not  the  men  to  wait  for  the  slow  motions  of  legisla- 
tors or  old  fogies.  Indeed  we  are  at  least  one  hundred  years  in 
advance  of  those  who  live  in  the  Atlantic  States. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


In  his  first  annual  message  to  Congress,  Mr.  Fillmore,  follow- 
ing in  the  footsteps  of  Senators  Gwin  and  Fremont,  from  this 
State,  urged  upon  both  houses  the  necessity  of  having  all  the  min- 
eralla  nds  of  California  leased  out ;  to  take  them  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  miners  and  turn  them  over  to  those  who  could  afford  to 
lease  them  from  the  General  Government.  Messrs.  Gwin  and 
Fremont  soon  discovered  their  error  and  abandoned  the  attempt 
to  lease  out  these  "mineral  lands.  When  the  news  of  this  project- 
ed measure  of  Mr.  Fillmore's  came  to  California,  it  raised  a  storm 
of  indignation  all  over  the  State.  The  intelligence  of  our  peo- 
ples' deep  resentment  at  this  attrocious  proposition,  fortunately, 
it  is  said,  reached  Washington  just  in  time  to  prevent  Congress 
from  consummating  this  oppressive  and  tyranical  act  upon  the 
State.  Had  that  body  authorized  the  President  to  lease  out  these 
mineral  lands,  the  people  here  would  have,  after  the  m9,nner  of 
Judge  Lynch,  hung  every  officer  who  would  have  attempted  to 
carry  out  the  law.  The  Federal  Government  soon  found  it  both 
necessary  and  convenient  to  retreat  from  its  position. 

That  session  of  Congress,  however,  succeeded  in  establishing 
in  our  State  a  new  kind  of  Court,  unknown  to  our  country  and  its 
institutions,  which  was  denominated  a  Board  of  Land  Commis- 
sioners .or  the  settlement  of  private  land  claims  in  California. 
In  former  years,  it  is  well  known  Land  Commissions  were 
established  in  Louisiana,  Florida  and  Missouri,  but  they  bore 


24 


no  resemblance  to  the  one  established  in  California  ;  —  yet, 
even  they  were  considered,  and  proved  to  be,  instruments  of 
fraud  and  oppression,  and  they  were  broken  up.  Manufacturers 
of,  and  speculators  in  fraudulent  Mexican  land  grants,  it  is  well 
known,  with  such  a  Court  as  the  one  established  here,  could  soon 
acquire  vast  fortunes — could  rob  under  the  color  of  law,  the  hon- 
est holders  and  occupants  of  the  lands  of  the  State.  After  fail- 
ing to  deprive  the  minws  of  tlieir  raining  claims,  the  General 
Government  appears  to  have  determined,  if  possible,  to  deprive 
our  people  of  all  their  agricultural  lands.  Soon  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  Board  of  Land  Commissioners,  it  is  a  well  knov.'^a 
fact,  that  Land  Grants  were  manufactured  by  wholesale,  and 
sold  in  the  streets  of  San  Francisco,  and  men  were  employed  to 
swear  them  through  the  Courts,  as  having  been  lawfully  issued  by 
the  Government  of  Mexico.  How  was  it  possible  for  the  Judges 
or  Commissioners  of  this  Court,  however  learned,  discerning  and 
upright,  to  discover  these  frauds  or  disprove  the  validity  of  these 
grants. 

It  would  have  been  far  better  had  Congress  confirmed  to  all  the 
occupants  of  the  lands,  their  titles  at  once,  whether  all  of  their 
claims  to  them  were  valid  or  not,  than  to  have  done  v.  hat  it  has 
done.  Even  with  the  present  Board  of  Commissioners,  had  the 
General  Government  made  their  decisions,  in  all  cases,  fn-al 
against  the  United  States,  we  might  by  this  time  have  had  nearly 
all  of  our  titles  to  the  lands  of  the  State  permanently  settled. 
But  this  it  refused  to  do.  The  decisions  of  the  Boa.  d  of  Com- 
missioners now  avail  us  nothing.  After  they  have  passed  upon  a, 
claim,  the  General  Government  has  the  right  to  carry  it  up  to  the 
United  States  District  Courts  of  California,  and  from  the  District 
Courts  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  In  this  way, 
it  is  well  known,  that  final  decisions  upon  all  of  these  grants  can- 
not be  had  under  a  century.  In  the  mean  time,  the  holders  of 
them  will  be  broken  up  by  expenses,  and  unprincipled  lawyers  and 
speculators  will  be  very  certain  in  a  few  years  to  seize  and  pos- 
sess themselves  of  the  whole  of  their  lands.  Many  of  the  native 
Californians  and  old  Pioneers  have  already  lost  every  league  of 
land  they  possessed. 

There  is  no  instance  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  where 
the  Federal  Government  has  acquired  territory  from  a  foreign 
State  against  the  inhabitants  of  whom  Congress  has  passed  such 


25 


inquisitorial  and  oppressive  laws,  having  reference  to  land  hold- 
ers, as  it  has  against  those  of  our  State.  The  holders  and  occu- 
piers of  lands  in  the  Louisiana  and  Florida  purchase,  vere  never 
required  to  come  into  Court  and  prove  their  titles.  The  titles  tr 
their  lands  were  never  disturbed  or  outlawed  by  the  General 
Government.  Here,  they  have  been  both  disturbed  and  outlawed 
by  act  of  Congress,  and  this  was  done  too,  in  direct  violation  of 
the  Treaty  of  Hidalgo  Guadaloupe.  Indeed  the  General  Gov- 
ernment has  pursued  the  early  settlers  and  native  Californians  as 
if  it  desired  to  strip  them  of  every  thing  they  possessed,  and  turn 
them  and  their  families  out  upon  the  world  without  a  penny  in 
their  pockets.  It  has  virtually,  by  act  of  Congress,  confiscated 
the  entire  landed  property  of  the  natives  and  old  pioneers  of  the 
State.  The  passage  of  this  law  was  an  act  of  barbarity,  and  it  is 
a  disgrace  to  our  statute  books.  The  President  and  Congress 
could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  this  law  most  shame- 
fully violated  the  plighted  faith  of  this  nation  in  its  treaty  with 
Mexico. 

By  the  eighth  and  ninth  articles  of  the  Treaty  of  Hidalgo 
Guadaloupe,  the  Government  of  the  United  S'.ates  was  most  sol- 
emnly pledged  inviolably  to  respect  and  protect  the  pro }>ertv. rights, 
libertiy,  and  the  religious  worship  of  the  native  Californians  fi'om 
moleslation,  wnether  they  were,  at  the  time  of  the  ratification  of 
the  Treaty,  or  not,  residing  within  the  State  of  California,  as 
fully  as  those  of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States.  Almost  the 
same  words  are  used  in  our  Treaties  with  France  and  Spain  for 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana  and  Florida.  But  Congress,  in  these 
last  two  mentioned  'treaties,  respected  the  plighted  faith  of  the 
General  Government.  In  our  Treaty  with  Spain  for  the  purchase 
of  Florida,  it  was  expressly  provided  that  all  grants  of  land 
made  subsequent  to  the  24th  of  January,  1818,  were  declared 
null  and  void  ;  but  all  grants  made  prior  to  that  date,  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  was  required,  under  the  Treaty,  to 
co'ifirm  to  the  holders  of  them.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  a  sim. 
ilar  provision  was  rot  inserted  in  the  Treaty  of  Hidalgo  Gua- 
loupe. 

Those  who  had  possession  of  lands  in  the  Territories  of  the 
Louisiana  and  Florida  purchase  for  the  period  of  ten  years  prior 
to  their  acquisition  by  tlie  United  States,  whether  they  held  grants 
for  lands  or  not,  were  allowed  by  Congress,  GiO  acres  of  laud. 


26 


Indeed  if  they  were  in  possession  of  lands  at  any  period  of  time 
previous  to  the  purchase  of  these  Territories  from  France  and 
Spain,  they  were  allowed  by  Congress  a  certain  quantity  of  land. 
No  resident  of  these  countries  at  the  time  of  their  acquisition  by 
the  United  States  was  denied  lands  by  Congress.  How  different 
from  this  has  been  the  course  of  the  General  Government  toward 
the  natives  and  pioneers  of  California.  In  this  State,  the  author- 
ities at  Washington  are  unwilling  to  let  a  single  individual  have 
even  a  foot  of  land.  They  will  neither  respect  possession  of  land 
for  any  number  of  years,  long  residence  in  the  country,  or  even  un- 
questionable titles  to  lands  for  sixty  or  seventy  years  standing. 
All  persons  must  be  excluded  from  owning  and  holding  one  foot 
of  land  to  support  themselves  and  families.  Not  even  the  very 
grave  yards  "  where  sleep  the  sleep  that  knows  no  waking"  of  all 
that  was  mortal  of  their  ancestors,  their  friends  and  kindred  dear, 
must  be  allowed  them.  Indeed  the  General  Government  has  acted 
towards  us  Tike  a  desperate  bully.  It  appears  unwilling  to  let  us 
have  the  v*  ry  means  by  which  we  are  to  support  life.  Such  conduct 
has  no  parallel  for  cruelty  in  any  civilized  State  of  this  age.  Un- 
fortunately, Californ'a  has  always  been  regarded  by  the  "  Powers 
That  Be,"  as  a  country  for  Federal  plunder.  Let  the  authorities 
at  Washington  be  careful  how  they  push  measures  to  extremes. 
They  may  go  too  far. 

The  member  of  Congress  who  drew  up  the  Act  providing  for 
the  establishment  of  a  "  Board  of  Land  Commissioners,  to  ascer- 
tain and  settle  private  land  claims  in  California,"  must  have  been 
a  Jesuit.  It  is  the  most  cunningly  devised  ac't  I  ever  read.  The 
General  Government  professes  all  the  way  lAirough  this  act,  to  be 
very  scrupulous  about  adhering  to  the  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of 
Hidalgo  Guadaloupe  ;  and  yet  it  compels  the  Law  Agent  to 
adopt  the  very  means  necessary  to  defeat  these  provisions.  It 
makes  this  officer  look  upon  every  property  holder  who  presents 
his  grant  for  confirmation,  as  a  rascal,  and  his  grant  of  land,  as 
a  fraudulent  one.  The  property  holder  is  *o  be  pursued  as  if  he 
were  a  forger  or  a  robber,  whom  the  GenersU  Government  is  pro- 
secuting for  committing  a  felony.  This  is  the  plain  English  of  it. 
Not  content  with  harrassing  him  in  one  Court,  it  fights  him 
through  three  successive  ones.  It  would  be  more  honorable  for 
the  Federal  Government  to  tako  from  him  by  force,  his  lands  at 
once,  than  to  break  him  up  with  expenses.    It  is  impossible  for 


2T 


him  in  the  end,  to  survive  this  long  and  wearisome  prosecu- 
tion. 

It  strikes  me  that  an  appeal  ought  to  be  made  at  once  to  the 
present  Congress  to  confirm  absolutely,  without  any  farther  de- 
lay, litigation  and  expense,  all  the  land  grants  decided  by  the 
late  Board  of  Land  Commissioners,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Limantour  and  some  other  bogus  grants  within  the  limits  of  the 
city  of  San  Francisco.  In  other  words,  Cdgress  should  give  to 
the  grant-holders  a  quit-claim  of  the  United  States  to  all  their 
lauds.  The  same  course  was  adopted,  and  even  provided  for,  in 
the  Board  of  Land  Commissioners  established  in  the  Florida  and 
Louisiana  purchases.  Those  Boards  were  only  instituted  to  col- 
lect information  for  Congress,  and  that  body  always  confirmed 
their  decision.  This  Board,  however,  bore  no  resemblance  to  our 
late  Board  of  Land  Commissioners.  At  the  same  time,  should 
Congress  confirm  all  the  decisions  made  by  the  Board  of  Land 
Commissioners  in  this  State,  it  should  likewise  provide  that  the 
settlers  now  on  these  grants  shall  be  indemnified  by  the  owners 
of  tlic  property  for  the  improvements  they  have  made.  This 
compromise  will  be  better  for  all  parties.  Neither  the  settlers  or 
the  property-holders  will  now  make  any  permanent  improvements 
until  the  titles  to  these  lands  have  been  legally  and  satisfactoi  ily 
determined. 

Under  the  present  state  of  things,  the  settlers,  as  well  as  the 
grant-holders  in  this  State,  are  now  virtually  without  homes  and 
without  lands  of  their  own.  The  Federal  Government  is  con- 
testing, inch  by  inch,  through  three  successive  Courts,  every  man's 
claim  to  a  foot  of  land  in  California.  It  is  the  interest,  there- 
fore, of  every  citizen  in  this  State  to  arrest  this  unnatural  condi- 
tion of  affairs.  If  we  adhere  to  the  present  system  of  adjusting 
land  titles,  all  the  inhabitants  now  residing  within  the  State  must 
die  off  without  lieing  able  to  leave  one  acre  of  land  to  their  chil- 
dren. What  country  can  enjoy  prosperity  where  the  people  are 
without  homes  and  without  lands.  No  one  now  can  say  that  he 
owns,  in  fee  simple,  a  particle  of  land,  for  it  is  all  claimed,  and 
all  in  dispute.  The  lawyers  and  speculators  are  now  reaping 
large  revenues  from  this  state  of  things  ;  and  if  we  continue  this 
conflict  about  land  titles  five  years  longer,  every  farmer  in  the 
State  will  be  broken  up,  and  the  State  itself  prostrated.  Let 
those  who  are  interested  in  lauds,  carefully  consider  this  subject. 


28 

It  is  idle,  however,  to  attempt  any  remedy  of  existing  evils,  in 
this  particular,  by  State  Legislative  enactments.  Such  legislation 
can  only  complicate  the  difficulties  which  now  surround  both  the 
settlers  and  the  grant-holders.  State  legislation  will  only  impose 
additional  burthens  on  the  settlers  and  grant-owners,  and  compel 
tLera  to  pay  more  money  into  the  hands  of  the  lawyers,  without 
accomplishing  any  good.  Every  sensible  and  honest  man  knows 
wel.  that  the. State  of  California  has  no  jurisdiction  and  no  con- 
trol of  these  land  grants.  Why  then  should  the  Legislature  thus 
trifle  with  a  people  who  are  now  almost  prostrated  by  existing 
difficulties?  We  have  it  from  the  mouths  of  several  old  Pio- 
neers, that  had  they  have  known  how  brutal  and  ferocious  the 
Government  would  have  prosecuted  them  in  this  country,  they 
would  have  left  here  long  since.  Major  Eeading  and  Capt.  Sut- 
ter have  no  hesitancy  in  saying  that  they  would  have  left  here, 
and  all  the  old  Californians  with  them,  had  they  known  they  were 
to  be  treated  as  they  have  been  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER  Y. 


During  this  same  session  of  Congress  of  '50-'51,  that  body 
passed  a  law  authorizing  the  establishment  of  an  Assay  Office  in 
this  State.  The  tlien  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Corwin, 
who  had  the  sole  right  under  tlie  law  to  see  its  provisions  carried 
into  effect,  made  a  private  contract  with  Curtis,  Perry  and  Ward 
to  commence  the  assaying  of  gold  in  California.  No  attempt 
was  made  to  establish  an  Assay  Office  as  provided  for  by  law,  but 
the  Secretary  erected  here  a  private  Government  shaving  shop  in 
the  place  of  it.  Altliough  tins  monstrous  outrage  and  fraud  was 
repeatedly  exposed  to  the  public,  and  the  guilty  parties  held  up 
to  the  popular  scorn  of  the  country,  yet  the  wily  Secretary  and 
his  tools,  Curtis  and  Mudd,  succeeded  in  fastening  on  our  people 
this  odious  and  iniquitous  establishment  for  nearly  three  years  ; 
and  yet  strange  to  say,  the  very  coin  manufactured  by  this  United 
States  Assay  Office  was  repudiated  by  the  General  Government. 


2d 


The  Post  Office  and  Custom  House  of  San  Francisco  absolutely 
refused  to  receive  it  in  payment  for  dues  to  the  Government,  and 
it  was  not  until  a  meeting  of  the  merchants  and  citizens  of  San 
Francisco  had  been  held,  and  had  openly  resolved  and  pro- 
claimed not  to  pay  the  Federal  Government  one  dollar  of  rev- 
enue unless  it  honored  its  own  coin,  that  it  consented  to  receive 
it.  What  a  spectacle  was  this!  Here  was  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, through  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  debasing  and  de- 
preciating its  own  currency.  It  soon  found,  however,  that  Cali- 
fornians,  when  aroused,  know  their  rights  and  are  prepared  to 
maintaitf  them.  Uncle  Sam  had  to  "  knuckle  under,"  because  he 
knew  that  Californians  do  not  say  they  will  do  a  thing  without 
doing  it.  Under  the  operations  of  this  private  Assay  Office  of 
Corwin,  Mudd,  Curtis,  Perry,  Ward  &  Co.,  the  hardy  and  indus- 
trious miners  of  California  were  shaved  and  swindled  out  of 
nearly  two  millions  of  dollars.  Of  course  all  the  parties  to  this 
mammoth  fraud  became  rich,  and  none  more  so  than  Mr.  Corwin, 
for  they  had  the  exclusive  right  to  assay  gold  and  place  the  Gov- 
ernment stamp  upon  it.  All  other  persona  were  prohibited  from 
exercising  this  privilege,  undct  many  pains  and  penalties.  Well 
might  Tom  Corwin,  although  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  he  was 
entitled  by  law  to  only  $6,000  per  annum,  retire  from  office  in 
two  years  with  a  fortune  of  half  a  million  of  dollars,  so  long  as 
he  had  such  a  field  for  plunder  as  California  afforded  him. 

Mr.  Fillmore,  after  Congress  had  failed  to  pass  a  law  authoriz- 
ing the  lease  of  the  mineral  lands  of  California,  determined  to 
try  another  mode  to  get  possession  of  the  mineral  lands  of  this 
State,  for  the  exclusive  use  and  benefit  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment. In  his  next  message  to  Congress  he  recommended  to  that 
body  the  propriety  of  passing  a  law  authorizing  the  President  to 
sell  these  mineral  lands  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  he  was  ably 
seconded  by  prominent  persons  belonging  to  all  parties  in  both 
houses  of  Congress.  Mr.  Fillmore,  as  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment, was  perhaps,  after  all,  but  the  organ  of  public  opinion  on 
the  other  side  of  the  continent.  Indeed,  all  parties  were  to 
blame  in  this  shameful  attempt  to  dispossess  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia of  their  mineral  lands.  No  member,  therefore,  of  any  one 
party,  can  with  justice  say  to  another,  "You  did  it."  For  nearly 
three  years  the  capitalists  of  Europe  and  the  Atlantic  States 
maintained  a  most  desperate  struggle  to  induce  the  Federal  Gov- 


30 


eminent, to  either  lease  or  sell  the  mineral  lands  of  this  State; 
and  we  regret  to  say  that  Mr.  Fillmore  and  other  prominent  poli- 
ticians in  Washington  gave  them  all  the  "  aid  and  comfort "  they 
could.  When  the  people  of  California,  however,  heard  of  this 
second  attempt  to  dispossess  them  of  their  mineral  lands,  they 
gave  the  General  Government  to  understand  that  to  accomplish 
its  purpose  its  minions  would  have  to  wade  through  seas  of 
blood — that  the  mines  were  the  common  property  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  and  that  they  should  be  held  by  the  Gen- 
eral Government  as  a  trust  for  that  purpose.  This  was  the  last 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  General  Government  to  deprive  us  of 
our  mineral  lands,  and  it  will  never  have  the  audacity  to  attempt 
it  again. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  injury  that  the  General  Gov- 
ernment wculd  have  inflicted  upon  this  country,  had  it  succeeded 
in  placing  the  whole  mineral  wealth  and  treasure  of  this  young 
State  in  the  hands  of  a  few  monopolists,  either  by  the  sale  or  the 
lease  of  the  mineral  lands.  Now  these  mines  are  a  princely  rev- 
enue, not  only  to  our  people,  but  to  the  people  and  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States.  They  have  been  supporting  the 
trembling  credit  of  the  whole  Union  for  the  last  five  years.  Had 
it  not  been  for  the  vast  annual  product  of  our  mines,  the  banks 
of  the  Atlantic  States  would  have  all  had  to  suspend  three  years 
ago,  and  the  most  of  the  merchants  in  that  quarter  would  have 
been  bankrupted.  We  have  not  only  upheld  and  protected  the 
financial  credit  and  honor  of  the  country,  at  home  and  abroad, 
but  we  have  increased  its  commerce  and  enlarged  its  products, 
resources,  revenues  and  area,  and  for  doing  all  this,  how  have  we 
been  recompensed? — how  treated  by  those  whom  we  have  so 
benefitted  ? 

We  admit  that  Congress  has  appropriated  some  few  millions  of 
dollars  to  erect  fortifications,  dock-yards,  public  buildings  and 
light-houses  on  the  Pacific  coast,  yet  all  this  money  has  been  spent 
for  the  especial  benefit  of  the  General  Government,  and  not  for 
our  people.  But  even  grant  that  it  was  spent  for  the  benefit  of 
the  people  of  California  and  the  adjacent  Territories,  is  it  not  a 
well  known  and  admitted  fact,  in  the  financial  and  commercial 
world,  that  the  semi-monthly  shipments  of  gold  from  California 
prevented  the  suspension  of  all  the  banks,  and  the  prostration  of 
nearly  all  the  importing  merchants  of  the  Atlantic  States  ?    Had 


81 


they  gone  by  the  board,  what  would  have  been  the  financial  con- 
dition of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  ?  President  Pierce 
would  have  had  to  call  an  extra  sessioi  of  Congress,  as  Mr.  Van 
Buren  did  in  1837,  and  Congress  would  no  doubt  have  had  to 
authorize  the  issue  of  another  batch  of  Treasury  Notes,  to  enable 
him  to  carry  on  the  Government.  '^  California,  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington, therefore  owe  Uncle  Sam  nothing  for  what  he  has  done 
for  them. 

The  session  of  Congress  in  1852  passed  a  law  providing  for 
the  establishment  of  certain  Districts,  in  which  should  reside 
Local  Inspectors  and  Supervising  Inspectors  of  all  steamboats 
navigating  the  waters  of  the  United  States.  California  was  en- 
tirely left  out  as  a  District  in  this  bill.  So  were  the  adjacent 
Territories  of  Oregon  and  Washington.  San  Francisco  was  al- 
lowed, however,  a  Local  Inspector  of  steamboats,  but  it  was  ex- 
pressly provided  in  the  act  that  none  of  his  decisions  should  be 
valid  or  binding  until  they  were  ratified  by  the  Supervising  In- 
spector of  the  District  of  New  Orleans.  Here  we  go  again  back 
to  the  Crescent  City, — back  to  the  alligator  holes  of  Louisiana. 
The  General  Government  appears,  by  many  of  its  acts,  to  have 
regarded  San  Francisco  as  but  a  mere  District  of  New  Orleans, 
and  California  herself  a  mere  Territory  belonging  to  the  State  of 
Louisiana. 

If  our  Inspector  here  condemned  a  steamer  as  unseaworthy, 
and  refused  to  give  a  certificate  to  the  owner  or  '(?wners  of  said 
steamer,  to  the  effect  that  her  boiler  or  boilers  were  substantial, 
well  made,  and  in  good  condition,  the  owner  could  snap  his  finger 
at  the  Inspector  and  say,  "  I  am  perfectly  indifi"erent,  sir,  whether 
you  give  me  a  certificate  or  not,  I  shall  run  my  boat,  and  you 
cannot  prevent  me."  The  Local  Inspector  here  could  not  expect 
the  Supervising  Inspector  of  New  Orleans  to  certify  to  his  acts, 
without  knowing  something  of  the  steamers  in  our  waters.  There 
is  no  means  now  of  compelling  steamboat  owners  here  to  provide 
their  boats  with  such  boilers  as  will  bear  inspection.  During  the 
last  session  of  Congress  a  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Senate, 
and  there  passed,  to  erect  California,  Oregon  and  Washington 
into  an  independent  steamboat  District,  but  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives laid  it  on  the  table,  from  which  it  will  be  hard  to  re- 
surrect. Just  now,  and  indeed  it  has  always  been  the  case,  the 
whole  Pacific  coast  is  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  this  steam- 


82 

boat  inspection  law  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a  great  mercy 
that  we  have  not  suflFered  more  than  we  have  from  steamboat 
explosions  in  our  waters. 

In  the  session  of  1851-1852,  Congress  passed  an  act  providing 
for  the  establishment  of  a  Branch  Mint  in  California  ;  and  in  the 
General  Appropriation  Bill  of  the  session  of  1852-'53,  Congress 
appropriated  the  sum  of  $300,000  for  the  erection  of  a  building 
and  for  putting  in  operation  a  Mint  in  California.    In  section  Gth, 
the  Act  says,  This  sum  "  shall  he  appropriated  only  to  the  erection 
and  putting  in  operation  a  Mint  in  California,  and  not  for  the  pur- 
chase of  any  building  for  that  purpose."    Now,  while  it  was  a  well 
known  fact,  the  Act  provided  that  this  appropropriation  should 
not  be  used  for  the  purchase  of  a  building,  but  exclusively  for  the 
erection  of  one  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  Branch  Mint  in 
California,  yet  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Corwin,  and 
his  successor,  Mr.  Guthrie,  openly  set  this  law  at  defiance.     Mr. 
Corwin  first  opened  negotiations  with  Curtis,  Ward  &  Perry  for 
the  purchase  of  their  Assay  Office  building,  in  Commercial  street, 
San  Francisco.    The  terms  were  agreed  upon,  and  when  Mr. 
Guthrie  superseded  Mr.  Corwin,  he  concluded  the  contract  as 
agreed  upon  and  signed  the  papers.     Why  did  Mr.  Guthrie  per- 
petrate this  act  of  fraud  upon  the  Government  ?    He  certainly 
must  have  known  that  the  purchase  of  this  building  was  a  direct 
violation  of  the  Act  of  Congress  making  the  appropriation  for 
the  establishment  of  the  Branch  Mint  in  California.     It  is  evi- 
dent, therefore,  that  Mr.  Corwin  and  Mr.  Guthrie  violated  their 
official  oaths,  when  they  took  the  responsibility  of  setting  at 
naught  this  law  of  the  United  States  and  the  object  of  our  Sena- 
tors and  Representatives  in  having  it  passed.     They  must  have 
perpetrated  this  fraud  to  enable  their  friends,  Curtis  and  Mudd, 
to  profit  by  it.     Their  conduct,  in  this  particular,  shows  that  they 
cared  nothing  about  the  Avants  and  wishes  of  the  people  of  this 
country,  and  we  regret  to  say  that  they  were  sustained  in  this 
gross  fraud  upon  the  Federal  Government  and  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia by  President  Pierce  himself.     The  present  building,  every 
one  here  knows,  is  altogether  too  contracted  and  unsuited  for  the 
purposes  for  which  it  is  used  ;  besides,  its  location  is  a  very  im- 
proper one.    It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  General  Govern- 
ment, in  a  few  years,  will  have  to  remove  the  Mint  to  some  more 
spacious  building  to  enable  it  to  meet  the  growing  wants  of  the 
Pacific. 


83 


t  mercy 
earaboat 

'oviding 
id  in  the 
;!ongres3 
building 
tion  Gth, 
erection 
•  the  pur- 
ls a  well 
n  should 
Y  for  the 
Mint  in 
win,  and 
ce.    Mr. 
i'erry  for 
al  street, 
hen  Mr. 
itract  as 
hrie  per- 
certainly 
a  direct 
ition  for 
[t  is  evi- 
d  their 
jtting  at 
>ur  Sena- 
tist  have 
I  Mudd, 
lilt  they 
e  of  this 
I  in  this 
of  Cali- 
ig,  every 
d  for  the 
very  im- 
Govern- 
ne  more 
ts  of  the 


The  present  establishment  never  could  have  cost  anything  like 
$300,000.  Tlie  whole  building  and  machinery,  as  well  as  the 
property  on  which  they  are  located,  would  not  sell  for  $100,000. 
Indeed,  I  am  informed  by  Judge  Lett,  the  present  gentlemanly 
and  intelligent  Superintendent  of  the  Mint,  that  the  whole  pro- 
perty, if  sold  to-morrow,  would  not  bring  over  076,000  ;  and  yet, 
strange  as  this  fact  will  appear,  the  expense  of  putting  in  opera- 
tion this  Mint,  with  all  the  property  belonging  to  it,  cost  the 
Government  $50,000,  over  and  above  the  appropriation  just  re- 
ferred to,  making  the  cost  of  the  whole  property  $350,000,  and 
yet,  if  it  was  sold  to-morrow  it  would  not  bring  $75,000.  Now, 
is  California  to  be  charged  on  the  Treasury  books  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  loss  of  all  this  large  appropriation  ?  I  am  in- 
formed also  by  Judge  Lott  that  the  deed  of  purchase  cannot  be 
found, — that, it  is  not  on  record,  and  never  has  been  on  record, 
although  he  is  certain  one  was  made  to  the  General  Government. 
Where  is  this  deed  ?  Who  has  possession  of  it,  and  why  is  it  not 
recorded  ?  Now  we  are  not  disposed  to  charge  corruption  on 
the  part  of  the  parties,  who  had  the  management  of  this  whole 
affair,  but  we  submit  to  every  candid  and  intelligent  man  whether 
tlie  facts  above  stated,  do  not  carry  conviction  to  all  impartial 
men  that  the  grossest  frauds  were  perpetrated  by  some  person  or 
persons,  having  authority  to  purchase  this  building  and  put  in 
operation  a  Branch  Mint  in  this  State. 

The  $300,000  appropriated  by  Congress  would  have  purchased 
a  suitable  piece  of  property,  in  some  eligible  part  of  the  city  of 
San  Francisco,  on  which  could  have  been  erected  a  building  as 
large  again  as  the  present  one, — one,  too,  that  would  have  been 
an  ornament  to  the  State,  and  a  credit  to  the  General  Govern^- 
mcnt, — besides  purchasing  all  the  necessary  machinery  for  assay- 
ing and  coining  gold  and  silver.  But  Secretaries  Corwin  and 
Guthrie  knew  that  the  seat  of  the  Parent  Government  was  some 
6,000  miles  distant  from  California,  and  that  as  they  had  the  sole 
authority  to  disburse  this  money,  they  could  make  the  contract 
and  spend  the  appropriation  before  we  in  California  could  take 
measures  to  prevent  them  misapplying  it. 

In  concluding  this  review  of  President  Fillmore's  administra- 
tion, we  desire  to  ask.  Where  now  are  those  Atlantic  officials 
who  were  shipped  out  here  at  public  expense,  by  Mr.  Fillmore's 
administration,  to  displace  the. old  Californians ?  Where  are 
3 


tl 

those  unscrupulous  Atlantic  tools  who  figured  so  largely  under 
Mr.  Corwin  as  his  financial  agents  in  this  country  ?  Yea,  wo  say, 
where  are  the  men  who  did  his  bidding  hero? — who  sung  hosan- 
nas  in  his  praise,  and  who  sent  on  to  Washington  so  many  de- 
famatory and  insulting  letters  against  the  Pioneers  of  California  ? 
They  formerly  lived  with  us,  and  were  loud  in  their  devotion  to 
this  young  State.  They  must  have  accumulated  large  pickings 
in  this  country.  It  appears  now  that  they  can  and  do  reside 
abroad.  Here  they  professed  that  they  had  pitched  their  tent 
forever  ;  but  no  sooner  had  Corwin  to  leave  his  post  in  the  Cabi- 
net, than  they  all  again  took  up  their  residence  in  the  Atlantic 
States.  Heaven  knows  that  our  people  are  certainly  not  in  favor 
of  their  return  to  California,  and  we  do  most  solemnly  protest 
against  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  as  well  as  the  Members  of 
Congress,  consulting  these  men  about  the  affairs  of  California, 
the  wants  of  our  people,  or  the  passage  of  such  measures  by  Con- 
gress as  may  be  both  necessary  and  proper  to  promote  the  ^velfare 
and  prosperity  of  the  Pacific  coast. 


CHAPTER  TI. 


We  now  come  to  the  consideration  of  President  Pierce's  ad- 
ministration, so  far  as  it  refers  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

By  an  Act  of  Congress  of  the  3d  of  March,  1854,  $120,000  was 
appropriated  for  the  establishment  of  a  line  of  Mail  Steamers 
between  San  Francisco  and  Puget  Sound,  in  Washington  Terri- 
tory, by  the  way  of  Humboldt,  Orescent  City,  Port  Orford,  and 
other  intermediate  ports.  This  contract  was  given  by  the  pres- 
ent Post  Master  General  to  J.  H.  Clay  Mudd,  the  very  same  in- 
dividual who  figured  so  extensively  in  California  under  the  Ad- 
ministration of  President  Fillmore.  As  Mudd  had  neither  the 
money  or  the  steamers  to  carry  into  effect  this  contract,  he  com- 
menced speculating  upon  it.  He  tried  to  get  Ex-Mayor  Garrison 
to  put  on  a  line  of  steamers  between  San  Francisco  and  Puge 
Sound,  and  offered  to  allow  him  $60,000  per  annum  for  carrying 
the  mail  to  and  from  these  points.  Of  course  Capt.  Garrison  con- 
sidered the  proposition  an  insult,  and  treated  it  with  contempt. 


.' 


Mr.  Mudd  was  to  havo  $00,000  for  doing  nothing,  while  Capt. 
Garrison  was  to  put  on  tlio  steamers  and  carry  the  mail,  and  then 
got  no  more  than  this  pet  of  the  General  Government.  We  havo 
heard  of  his  offering  it  to  Capt.  Wright,  and  others. 

Little  over  six  montlis  ago,  he  had  this  contract  hawking  about 
in  the  streets  of  New  York  city.  He  made  his  boasts  then  that 
ho  had  been  offered  sixty  thousand  dollars  for  it  in  San  Francisco. 
What  impudence  is  this  I  And  yet,  while  he  was  in  New  York, 
or  about  that  time,  boasting  that  he  had  been  offered  $60,000  on 
this  mail  contract,  he  writes  a  letter  to  the  Editor  of  one  of  the 
papers  published  at  Puget  Sound  that  he  was  unable  to  comply 
with  this  contract,  as  he  had  neither  the  steamers  or  the  money 
to  carry  it  into  effect.  He  therefore  informed  the  people  of  that 
Territory  that  they  need  never  expect  to  derive  any  benefits  from 
this  contract.  Of  course  they  need  never  expect  to  see  him  carry 
out  the  contract,  for  it  was  given  to  him  by  the  Post  Master  Gen- 
eral expressly  to  prevent  the  line  from  ever  being  established. 
It  was  well  known  from  the  first,  by  both  contracting  parties,  that 
it  was  to  be  of  no  effect  whatever. 

Here  is  another  Act  of  Congress,  passed  for  the  benefit  of  this 
country,  deliberately  annulled,  defied  and  made  of  no  effect  by 
the  General  Government,  through  the  Post  Master  General. 
What  does  this  administration  mean  by  setting  at  defiance  laws 
passed  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  our  portion  of  the  Union  ?  Of 
course  this  appropriation  by  Congress,  so  long  as  the  contract 
remains  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Mudd,  is  of  no  avail  to  the  peopl.e  of 
California,  Oregon  and  Washington.  There  is  now  but  one  Post 
Office  in  the  whole  region  of  Puget  Sound — a  region  embracing 
nearly  three  hundred  miles  in  extent — and  there  is  no  regular 
mail  carried  to  and  from  there.  Although  there  is  a  large  trade 
and  commerce  carried  on  in  that  part  of  the  Territory,  still  the 
people  there  can  get  neither  letters  or  papers,  but  such  as  they 
may  receive  through  transient  steamers  and  vessels.  It  is  thus 
that  the  people  on  the  Pacific  coast  are  treated  by  the  General 
Government  and  runaways  from  this  country.  If  the  General 
Government  is  determined  to  give  to  Mr.  Mudd  the  entire  con- 
trol and  management  of  our  interests,  let  it  establish  forthwith 
another  Bureau  Department  especiallv  for  the  Pacific  Coast,  and 
place  him  at  the  head  of  it.    He  is  -.x  fast  man  and  a  big  opera- 


8G 


tor,  and  he  can  then  go  it  for  Uncle  Sam  and  for  us,  with  a  per- 
fect looseness. 
.  One  of  the  most  recent  and  glaring  acts  of  injustice  inflicted 
on  this  young  Commonwealth,  was  an  Act  passed  at  the  last  ses- 
sion of  Congress,  providing  for  the  establishment  of  a  United 
States  Circuit  Court  in  California.  This  Court,  instead  of  being 
placed  on  an  equality  with  all  the  other  Circuit  Courts  of  the 
United  States,  was  made,  by  the  Act  which  created  it,  a  mere 
local  Court.  The  Judge  of  the  California  Circuit  Court  is  not 
made  an  Associate  Justice  of  the  United  States,  like  all  other 
United  States  Circuit  Judges,  but  a  mere  local  Judge.  By  this 
act  of  discrimination  against  us  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, our  State  is  denied  a  representative  on  the  Bench  of 
the  Supremo  Court  at  Washington.  California,  therefore,  is  the 
only  State  in  this  Union  that  has  not  a  Judicial  representative  in 
that  Court.  Why  should  she  be  thus  cut  off  from  all  the  direct 
benefits  of  the  highest  Judicial  tribunal  in  the  United  Stiites  ? 
The  novelty  of  principles,  the  number  of  cases,  and  tlie  amount 
of  property  involved  in  Judge  McAlistcr's  Circuit  Court,  exceeds 
that  of  any  Judicial  Circuit  in  the  United  States,  and  yet  his 
Circuit  Court  has  been  made  a  mere  local  one.  Why  should  not 
the  United  States  Circuit  Court  of  California  be  placed  on  the 
broad  basis  of  National  equality  with  all  the  other  Circuit  Courts 
of  the  United  States  ?  Now  we  have  no  one  on  the  Supreme 
Court  Bench  who  can  and  will  give  his  immediate  attention  to 
the  California  cases  before  that  Court.  Our  land  cases  alone  in- 
volve a  greater  amount  of  property,  perhaps,  at  this  time,  than 
all  the  other  cases  on  trial  before  that  Court,  and  yet  our  United 
States  Circuit  Judge,  Mr.  McAlister,  is  denied  a  seat  upon  that 
Bench. 

While  on  this  subject,  we  desire  to  say  a  few  words  more  in 
relation  to  the  effect  and  Judicial  operations  of  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress of  the  3rd  of  March,  1852,  entitled,  "  An  Act  to  ascertain 
and  settle  private  land  claims  in  California."  By  the  provisions 
of  that  bill'  it  will  be  recollected,  that  after  the  termination  of 
the  Board  of  Commissioners,  an  appeal  at  the  instance  of  the  de- 
feated party,  lies  to  the  United  States  District  Courts  of  Califor- 
nia, and  from  these  latter  Courts  an  appeal  is  provided  for  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  The  Board  of  Land  Com- 
missioners have  decided  all  the  claims  before  them,  and  a  j  vanned 


87 


sine  die.  Wo  may  all  thank  hoavcii  for  that.  IJut  out  of  all  the 
cascH  appealed  to  the  United  States  District  Courts,  there  have 
been  decided  only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty,  leaving  still  un- 
decided at  least  six  hundred  and  fifty.  Out  of  these  one  hundred 
and  fifty  cases  decided  by  the  United  States  District  Courts,  there 
have  only  been  confirmed  by  the  Sujiremo  Court  of  the  United 
States  between  five  and  six.  Tiiis  leaves  still  nearly  eight  hun- 
di'cd  California  cases  yet  to  be  adjudicated  by  that  high  tribunal. 
Now,  wc  should  like  to  know  when  these  remaining  eight  hun- 
dred cases  will  be  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  ?  Even  of  the  very  few  cases  which  have  been  confirmed 
by  the  Sui)reme  Court,  only  two  of  them  arc  of  any  avail  to  the 
parti ■'^, holding  the  property.  The  General  Government,  in  the 
other  titles  confirmed  by  the  Supreme  Court,  has  refused  to  de- 
liver to  the  parties  patents  for  their  lands.  For  this  reason,  the 
titles  to  their  property  are  now  just  as  much  clouded  as  they  were 
when  they  wore  tirat  brought  before  the  Board  oi  Land  Commis- 
sioners. 

Owing  to  the  mistaken  economy  of  the  General  Government, 
in  not  providing  its  officers  in  California  with  money  to  pay  for 
carrying  up  the  land  cases  already  decided  by  the  United  States 
District  Courts  of  this  State,  to  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washing- 
ton, all  the  California  land  cases,  with  the  exception  of  five  or 
six,  are  suspended,  awaiting  the  tardy  action  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. A  general  order  has  been  issued  by  the  Attorney  General 
of  the  United  States,  to  the  United  States  District  Attorneys  in  Cali- 
fornia, to  appeal  all  land  cases  decided  against  the  Government, 
to  the  Supreme  Court.  Yet,  in  the  face  of  this  state  of  things, 
the  Government  at  Washington  has  neglected  to  provide  its  local 
officers  here  with  money  to  carry  into  eflfect  this  order.  These 
delays  of  the  Government  must  of  necessity  operate  oppressively 
to  the  landholders  and  settlers,  and  likewise  injuriously  to  the 
welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  State.  As  matters  now  stand,  the 
prospects  of  a  final  settlement  of  our  land  titles  appears  to  be 
very  remote  indeed.  Several  generations  will  have  passed  away 
before  they  can  be  finally  adjudicated  under  the  present  system. 
Wo  might  have  these  evils  abated  to  some  extent,  if  our  United 
States  Circuit  Judge,  Mr.  McAlister,  was  permitted,  like  all  other 
United  States  Circuit  Judges,  to  take  his  seat  on  the  Bench  of 
the  Supreme  Court.    He  could  then  and  there  bring  to  the  atten- 


38 


tion  of  that  tribunal  the  necessity  of  early  action  on  all  the  land 
titles  of  California.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  present  session  of 
Congress  will  not  adjourn  before  placing  the  United  States  Cir- 
cuit Court  of  this  State  on  the  same  National  equality  with  all 
the  other  Circuit  Courts  of  the  United  States. 

When  Congress  undertakes  to  legislate  for  the  whole  Union,  it 
very  frequently  leaves  California,  Oregon  and  Washington  out  of 
the  Act ;  but  when  it  undertakes  to  provide  for  the  raising  of 
revenue,  California  and  the  adjacent  Territories  are  ro«  ar  for- 
gotten, and  it  invariably  makes  us  pay  twice  as  much  as  those 
who  live  on  the  Atlantic  side,  and  often  three  timet?  as  much. 
Why  will  the  General  Government  continue  to  omit  providing 
for  us  on  the  Pacific  coast,  when  legislating  for  the  whole  coun- 
try ?  Our  people  are  as  true  to  the  American  Republic  as  those 
of  any  part  of  it.  If  the  United  States  sh  luld  become  involved 
in  war,  we  woald  deferid  her.  If  the  foe  shoiilc?  attempt  to  in- 
vade us,  we  would  meet  them  on  the  beaoh  with  a  sword  in  one 
hand  and  a  torch  in  the  other.  We  would  dispute  every  inch  of 
ground,  burn  every  blade  of  grass,  and  the  last  entrenchment  of 
liberty  should  be  our  graves,  rather  than  permit  a  foreign  enemy 
to  contaminate  the  soil  of  our  country.  Then  why  should  we  be 
excepted  to  and  discriminated  against  ?  All  we  ask,  and  all  we 
have  ever  claimed,  is  to  be  placed  on  an  equality  with  all  the 
States  and  Territories  in  this  Union.  As  we  are  now  situated, 
the  Federal  Government  is  our  most  bitter  enemy.  It  has 
wronged  us  long  enough,  and  it  is  now  about  time  that  it  should 
both  understand  and  respect  our  appeals  to  justice  and  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

When  the  General  Government  is,  however,  disposed  to  do 
anything  magnificent  for  the  Pacific  Coast,  it  scndsa  Consul  to 
Acapulco  or  the  Navigator  Islands.  The  one  now  at  the  Navi- 
gator Islands,  Yi.'.  Van  Camp,  has  fleeced  the  merchants  of  San 
Francisco  ovt  of  some  sixty-three  thousand  dolkrs,  and  before 
Judge  Jenkins  gets  there  to  supersede  liim,  he  will  have  fleeced 
them  out  of  twice  that  amount.  He  is  a  bold  operator  and  a 
regular  fast  Californian,  and  as  soon  as  he  finds  that  he  is  super- 
seded, he  will  then  go  in  for  declaring  the  Islands  an  Independ- 
ent'Republic,  and  of  course  decline  to  receive  Judge  Jenkins 
until  the  United  Stated  have  consented  to  acknowledge  the  inde- 
pendence of  his  copper-colored  Republic.    This  was  his  inten- 


69 


; 


tion,  before  he  sailed  from  here.  He  left  California  a  regular 
filibuster,  and  he  has  now  perhaps  got  money  enough  to  carry  out 
his  purpose. 

Our  present  Consul  in  Acapulco,  in  Mexico,  is  on  the  poor  list. 
He  was  a  great  friend  of  Gen.  Alvarez,  and  was  promised  many 
leagues  of  land  for  his  assistance  to  that  revolutionary  leader. 
But  his  leagues  of  land  have  all  been  located  among  a  band  of 
warlike  Indians,  and  they  promise  to  hang  him  if  he  ever  under- 
takes to  conr^e  and  get  possession  of  them.  President  Pierce  has 
evidently  immortalized  himself  in  these  Consular  appointments 
from  California.  All  the  other  Diplomatic  and  Consular  Agents 
in  every  port  on  the  Pacific,  have  been  taken  from  the  back-woods 
of  the  Western  and  Sonth-Western  States,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  continent,  with  the  exception  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Parker,  our 
Commissioner  to  the  Celestials,  and  he  will  not  do  anything  for 
us  on  the  Pacific  coast,  unless  His  Majesty,  the  Emperor  of  China, 
will  acknowledge  himself  sound  on  the  Westminster  Confession 
of  Faith.  These  Western  and  Soulh-Western  Consular  Agents 
and  Commissioners  know  no+hing  about  commercial  law  or  com- 
mercial affairs.  The  only  way  we  could  expect  them  to  serve  us, 
if  it  was  admissible,  would  be  at  a  game  of  poker.  If  they  could 
accomplish  anything  for  as  in  that  way,  they  would  soon  have  in 
our  possession  nearly  all  the  ports  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  for  they 
would  go,  every  time,  fifty  on  the  king,  and  a  hundred  on  the  ace. 


] 


CHAPTER  VII. 


The  great  continental  Rail  Road  :j  yet  to  be  provided  for.  I 
have  no  hopes  that  the  Federal  Government  will  ever  build  this 
road,  nor  dc  1  wish  it  to  do  so.  If  it  should  undertake  to  con- 
struct such  largfi  works  of  internal  improvement,  it  would  soon 
become  too  powerful  for  the  States.  Lut  it  is  amply  provided 
with  the  means  to  secure  its  construction.  It  can  appropriate 
public  lauds  to  Missouri  and  California,  and  such  States  as  may 
be  organized  along  the  route,  so  as  to  enulie  ihese  States  to  con- 
struct the  road  through  their  own  limits.  It  can  also  grant  the 
right  of  way  through  the  interiaediate  Territories,  and  donate 


40 


land  to  any  company  that  may  undertake  the  work,  and  as  a  pro- 
tection to  itself,  it  can  provide  that  it  shall  have  the  right  to 
transport  the  mails,  troops,  ordnance,  &c.,  free  of  charge  for  a  cer- 
tain number  of  years.  This  it  can  do,  and  this  it  should  do  with- 
out delay.  The  Federal  Government  has  already  extended  such 
facilities  to  the  Western  and  South  Western  States  ;  and  it  can, 
therefore,  without  any  excuse,  extend  the  same  facilities  to  the 
States  more  immediately  interested  in  the  early  construction  of 
this  continental  highway.  But  Preis'dent  Pierce  appears  to  be 
perfectly  bewildered  about  whj  h.  nnld  do  in  regard  to  this 
road. 

His  first  annual  message  to  Congress  on  this  subject  wad  as 
clear  as  mud.  He  told  Congress  thdt  the  policy  of  the  Federal 
Qoveynment  was  against  internal  imnrovsments  in  the  States — 
that  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe  and  all  the  old  apostles  and 
founders  of  the  Democratic  party,  had  all  declared  that  the  Fed- 
eral Government  had  no  power  to  enter  upon  a  general  system  of 
internal  improvements,  but  as  they  were  old  fogies,  and  all  dead, 
he  suggested  that  it  might  be  well  for  Congress  to  reconsider  the 
whole  subject.  As  for  himself,  he  did  not  wish  to  be  committed 
on  this  question.  The  fact  is.  Pierce  is  not  souud,  and  never  has 
been  sound  on  this  Pacific  Railroad.  When  'jlc  ';ame,  however* 
to  the  Territories,  there  he  supposed  the  cutri  V  Government 
had  unquestionable  power  to  construct  a  S:  •>  \.i  ;  but  before  he 
got  lialf  way  through  this  part  of  his  mesfcat,.-,  'ic  ^  .ingested  that 
it  might  bo  well  not  tr  he  in  a  huriy,  as  there  m.^ji*'  after  all,  be 
some  mistake  about  it.  Ho  considered  that  Congress  had  the 
clear  constitutional  right  to  claim  all  *'e  atmosphere,  and  all  the 
space  o,bove  the  soil,  but  if  theri  m*  •'hould  touch  the  lumi  at  any 
point,  he  did  not  know  but  on  tha.  jcount,  the  whole  improve- 
ment might  be  regarded  by  nim  as  unconstitutional.  Frunk  Pierce 
is,  indeed,  ^  strict  constructionist. 

Now,  it  may  be  possible,  that  under  .':  sident  Pierce's  views 
of  tie  constitutional  power  of  Congrcfc^  t;  norstr'ict  this  Rail- 
road, it  might  be  built  on  stilts.  But  even  with  this  view  of 
the  case,  there  might  arise  another  grave  and  serious  diflficulty  ; 
88  the  stilt-^  would  Invt  to  be  dr^ren  into  the  soil,  ho  might  con- 
sider that  the  tl living  oi  r  u  into  the  earth  would  also  render 
the  construction  of  such  a  road  unconstitutional.  The  best  inter- 
pretation that  I  can  give  to  this  message  on  the  Pacific  Railroad, 


5] 


5 


41 

is  this  :  It  is  probable  that  what  the  President  is  really  di/ving 
at,  is  the  construction  of  a  balloon  line  from  ocean  to  ocei  n.  If 
so,  then  let  us  have  it  as  soon  as  possible,  so  that  we  can  all  go 
a-kiting  across  the  continent,  to  "  see  the  old  folks  at  home." 

But  after  all,  I  do  not  see  how  these  balloons  are  to  be  kept  on 
a  bee  line  between  San  Francisco  and  St.  Louis,  unless  they  are 
navigated  by  carrier  pigeons — the  most  sensible  winged  naviga- 
tors I  know  of.  Now,  suppose  these  pigeons  are  required  by  an 
act  of  Congress  to  fly  by  night,  and  that  they  should,  on  some 
dark  evening,  be  in  the  regions  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  or  the 
Sierra  Nevadas,  and  that  they  should,  by  accident,  while  ascend- 
ing either  side  of  these  lofty  ranges  of  mountains,  suffer  their 
balloons  to  touch  the  earth,  then  it  might  so  1'  xppen  that  President 
Pierce  would  declare  even  this  line,  for  that  reason,  unconstitu- 
tional. The  fact  is,  we  have  a  high  old  President.  On  this  Pa- 
cific Railroad,  he  has  been  playing  on  a  harp  of  a  thousand 
strings,  tc  spirits,  of  r.ankind,  perfect  and  imperfect.  An  old 
farmer  in  his  State,  when  he  heard  of  his  nomination  for  the  office 
he  now  holds,  said  of  him — that  he  would  do  very  well  for  New 
Hampshire,  but  when  they  undertook  to  spread  him  all  over  the 
Union,  he  thought  Frank  Pierce  would  be  found  too  small  a  man 
for  that  purpose. 

This  message  reminds  us  of  William  S.  Archer's  Report,  made 
some  years  since  to  the  United  States  Senate,  on  Foreign  Rela- 
tions. When  that  Report  reached  Europe,  they  could  not  tell 
there,  what  we  wore  all  driving  at  in  America.  No  one  ever  un- 
derstood it  there,  and  no  one  ever  understood  it  in  this  country. 
Th".  New  Orleans  Picayune  made  several  experiments  upon  it. 
The  editor  cut  out  one  extract  and  read  it  from  top  to  bottom,  and 
then  he  turned  it  upside  down  and  read  it  just  the  othei  way,  and 
ue  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  read  as  well  and  as  sensible  one 
way  as  the  other.  I  have  made  the  same  experiment  on  Pierce's 
Railroad  message,  and  I  have  come  to  the  same  conclusion  in  my 
investigation  of  this  message,  that  the  Editor  of  the  New  Orleans 
Picayune  came  to  about  Archer's  Report.  President  Pierce's 
message  on  this  Railroad,  like  Archer's  Report  on  Foreign  Re- 
lations, fell  stillborn,  as  soon  as  it  was  made  public.  Now  we 
propose  to  treat  very  respectfully,  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  this 
Republic,  but  we  tell  him,  and  tell  Cor  gross,  as  well  as  our  At- 
lantic brethren,  that  we  do  not  wish  any  more  nonsense  and  de- 
3* 


m 


42 


lay  over  this  road.  They  must  let  us  have  it,  or  we  will  make 
them  hear  from  us.  And  they  may  find  that  when  they  do  hear 
from  us,  they  will  feel  as  though  they  had  heard  the  voice  of 
Hermes  and  the  thunder  of  Jupiter. 

Daring  the  last  session  of  Congress,  an  act  was  passed,  grant- 
ing the  right  of  way  to  any  company  that  would  construct  a 
magnetic  telegraph  line  across  the  continent  from  St.  Louis  to 
San  Francisco.  But  would  any  one  believe  it  when  I  tell  them, 
this  act  granted  nothing  more  than  the  mere  permission  to  build 
a  telegraph  line.  Now  I  have  read  and  heard  of  tomfoolery,  and 
have  even  seen  it,  but  I  must  confess  that  I  have  never  found,  on 
record,  such  a  broad  farce  as  this  act  presents,  on  any  statute  book. 
Why,  in  this  act  Congress  only  consents  to  let  a  company  have  the 
right  to  insert  posts  in  the  earth,  on  which  the  wires  are  to  be 
suspended.  Not  a  foot  of  land  is  granted,  no,  not  even  enough 
on  which  to  erect  a  cabin.  No  provision  is  made  to  protect  the 
line  from  destruction.  This  is  a  magnanimous  act  of  Uncle 
Sam's  towards  the  people  of  the  Pacific  coast.  Who,  in  the 
name  of  common  sense,  would  ask  the  General  Government 
for  the  right  of  way,  if  they  should  choose  to  invest  their 
money  in  such  a  work  as  this.  Does  any  one  suppose  that  the 
General  Government  would  undertake  to  pull  up  the  posts  and 
otherwise  destroy  such  a  line,  if  a  number  of  American  citis5ens 
should  voluntarily  construct  this  improvement  at  their  own  ex- 
pense, and  provide  the  means  for  protecting  it  ?    No. 

The  Govornmant  does  not  provide  that  any  man  shall  have  land 
enougli  for  a  garden  and  a  log  house.  Now,  it  is  well  known, 
that  if  such  a  line  was  constructed,  the  company  would  have  to 
select  some  bordw-men  who  understand  the  various  languages 
spoken  by  the  numerous  Indian  tribes  on  this  route,  to  protect 
and  defend  the  line ;  and  the  most  of  these  hardy  mountaineers 
have  Indian  squaws  for  their  wives.  In  this  way  they  generally 
become  leading  Chiefs  of  tribes,  and  control  them,  and  yet  the 
General  Government  makes  no  provision  for  these  men  and  their 
families.  It  is  strange  'hat  Congress  should  have  been  guilty  of 
perpetrating  such  a  gross  deception  on  the  people  of  this  country, 
as  it  did  perpetrate  by  the  passage  of  this  bill.  That  body  cer- 
tainly must  have  known  that  they  had  granted  nothing,  by  this 
act,  in  aid  of  the  construction  of  this  line.  It  must  have  been 
fully  aware,  also,  that  no  company  would  have  regarded  this  act 


48 

as  being  of  any  advantage  to  them.  The  fact  is,  the  Government 
has  justly  rendered  itself  contemptible  in  passing  such  a  ridic- 
ulous act  as  this. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 


It  is  a  matter  of  national  humiliation  that  we  can  neither  get  a 
Military,  Post,  Wagon,  Stage  or  Railroad  across  the  continent,  or 
even  a  telegraph  line.  Why  is  this  ?  We  will  tell  the  public. 
The  capitalists  and  stockholders  of  New  York  city,  who  are  in- 
terested in  the  Panama  Line  of  Steamers,  and  who  have  the  Gov- 
erment  contract  for  carrying  the  mail  between  California  and 
New  York,  can  bring,  and  have  always  brought,  influence  enough 
to  bear  upon  a  suflBcient  number  of  members  of  Congress  to  in- 
duce them  to  vote  against  any  commnnication  whatever,  between 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  States  across  the  continent.  As  soon  as 
a  proposition  is  made  to  Congress  to  establish  any  '^  le  of  the  be- 
fore mentioned  kind  of  roads,  these  men  are  found  swarming  and 
buzzing  around  Washington  to  oppose  it.  Year  after  year  we 
have  been  trying  to  make  some  impression  on  the  "  Powers  That 
Be"  in  the  Federal  city,  in  favor  of  some  kind  of  a  highway  across 
the  continent,  wi  thout  accomplishing  any  good.  These  New  York 
capitalists  and  stockholders,  whose  wealth  and  power  we  have 
been  every  year  so  greatly  augmenting,  resist  every  attempt  to 
form  such  a  connection  between  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic. 

Their  capital  and  interest  are  in  South  America,  and  hence 
their  opposition  to  us.  Away  around  through  Central  and  South 
America,  we  are  now  forced  to  go  when  we  wish  to  travel  t:  the 
Atlantic  States,  and  Congress  has  shown  itself  mercenary  enough 
to  knuckle  under  to  this  moneyed  power.  In  doing  this,  however, 
it  thay  find,  when  it  is  too  late  to  remedy  the  evil,  that  while  the 
Government  is  thus  pandering  to  a  few  New  York  capitalists,  it 
may  force  us  to  take  leave  of  the  Atlantic  States  forever.  When 
that  day  comes  (if  it  ever  comes,  and  may  it  never  come),  we  will 
make  New  York  sweat  for  her  ingratitude  to  California. 

The  authorities  at  Washington  know  well,  that  bo  long  as  Mr. 


44 


Aspinwall  has  the  contract  for  carrying  the  mail  between  Cal- 
ifornia and  New  York,  by  Panama,  and  for  which  the  United 
States  pay  him  the  sum  of  $800,000,  he  will  always  oppose  any 
road  across  the  continent.  This  mail  contract  is  forever  thrown 
into  our  teeth,  whenever  we  ask  for  any  kind  of  a  continental 
road.  Californians  do  not  get  the  money  for  carrying  the  mail, 
but  New  Yorkers,  yet  they  have  to  pay  a  large  proportion  of  the 
expense  for  can-ying  it.  No  one  but  Mr.  Aspinwall  has  ever 
asked  the  General  Government  to  pay  this  enormous  amount 
of  money  for  transporting  the  mail  between  New  York  and  San 
Francisco.  There  are  a  plenty  of  persons  in  New  York  and  Cal- 
ifornia who  would  agree  to  carry  the  mail  for  one  fourth  of  the 
present  sum.  But  the  mercenary  "  publicans  and  sinners"  who 
hold  ofiBce  in  Washington,  and  who  live  upon  the  hard  toil  and 
earnings  of  the  producing  classes,  are  willing  to  pay  Mr.  Aspin- 
wall this  large  appropriation.  So  long  as  he  can  afford  to  give 
them  big  dinners  and  free  passages  on  his  ships,  at  our  expense, 
he  will  ever  remain  a  trump  card  with  them.  Yet  if  we  ask  for 
any  favors,  this  great  sum  of  money  the  General  Government  has 
to  pay  for  carrying  the  mail,  is  insultingly  cast  up  at  us.  We 
are  not  going  to  let  "a  torrent  of  impetuous  zeal  transport  us  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  reason,"  but  we  tell  the  "  Powers  that  Be,"  in 
Washington,  that  we  do  not  wish  to  have  this  contract  thrown 
into  our  face  any  longer.  Let  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  the 
Post  Master  General,  abolish  this  contract,  as  they  have,  by  law, 
the  power  to  do,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  other  contractors 
will  agree  to  carry  the  mail  for  one  fourth  of  the  present  charge 
to  the  Government.  Even  the  Express  Companies  would  agree 
to  transport  the  mail  between  New  York  and  San  Francisco,  free 
of  charge  to  the  General  Government,  for  the  privilege  of  charg- 
ing the  present  postage  rates  fixed  by  law  on  all  mailable  matter. 
Have  we  not  lost  enough  of  our  people,  traveling  around  one- 
fourth  of  the  entire  globe  on  the  bosom  of  two  oceans,  to  reach 
New  York  or  California,  through  sickly  and  foreign  countries, 
to  satisfy  the  cupidity  of  both  Mr.  Aspinwall  and  the  authorities 
in  Washington  ?  Are  there  not  dead  men  and  women  sufficient 
in  the  ocean's  depths,  and  along  the  miasmatic  regions  of  Central 
and  South  America,  to  gratify  the  appetites  of  these  gentlemen  ? 
Are  they  still  panting  for  more  dead  men  and  women  ?  Is  it  their 
purpose  to  keep  us  always  isolated,  as  we  now  are,  from  the  rest 


of  the  Union  ?  "We  ask  them  to  forbear — to  reverse  their  policy 
towards  us.  Let  them  not  be  reckless  of  the  power  they  enjoy. 
We  mtist  have  a  continental  highway  of  some  kind  very  soon,  or 
the  Federal  Government  may  find  that  it  will  raise  a  storm  on 
tliis  coast  that  will  shake  the  Union  to  its  foundation.  If  it  re- 
fuses to  allow  us  a  road  of  some  kind,  we  tell  the  people  on  the 
other  side,  as  well  as  the  Administration  in  Washington,  in  no 
spirit  of  malevolence  or  bravado,  that  they  will  raise  a  flame 
here  that  all  the  waters  of  the  great  ocean  that  washes  our  shores 
can  never  quench. 

We  have  no  fault  to  find  with  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Line. 
It  is  connected  with  the  infancy  and  early  settlement  of  this  ]->art 
of  our  country.  It  has  "  grown  with'  our  growth,  and  stren«,'i,h- 
ened  with  our  strength."  We  would  regret  to  see  it  impaired  in 
any  manner,  or  its  usefulness  abridged.  We  have  no  complaint 
to  make  against  any  of  its  owners,  or  the  commanders  of  its  ships, 
or  the  agents  who  manage  the  business  of  the  company.  Messrs. 
Forbes  &  Babcock,  the  agents  of  the  company  here,  have  proved 
themselves  friends  to  this  country,  and  they  have  exhibited  great 
liberality  towards  our  people.  They  have  lost  money  out  of  their 
own  pockets  by  extending  favors  to  Californians  in  distress.  No 
class  of  steamship  commanders  in  any  part  of  the  world  stand 
higher  than  those  employed  in  the  Pacific  Mail  Company's  ser- 
vice. Nor  have  we  ought  to  complain  of  Mr.  Aspinwall's  course 
in  the  management  of  this  company's  affairs  ;  but  Ave  do  complain 
of  the  General  Government's  casting  this  mail  contract  in  our 
face  whenever  we  ask  for  some  aid  in  the  construction  of  a  con- 
tinental highway. 

What  wouM  be  the  condition  of  the  Pacific  coast,  should  the 
United  States  become  involved  in  war,  with  such  large  military 
and  maritime  powers  as  France  and  England  ?  Wo  would  then 
be  almost  entirely  in  their  power.  Our  Atlantic  brethren  could, 
under  such  an  emergency,  live  happy  and  contented  at  their  own 
homes  and  firesides,  free  from  danger,  while  we  would  have  our 
commerce  on  the  ocean  all  cut  oft",  as  well  as  encounter  all  the 
terrible  carnage  and  ravages  of  war.  We  would  have  to  main- 
tain the  fight  almost  single-handed,  as  we  could,  in  such  an  event, 
get  comparatively  no  help  from  the  Parent  Government.  If  the 
"  Powers  That  Be  "  in  Washington,  care  nothing  about  us,  but  to 
use  US  for  their  own  convenience  and  benefit,  let  us  know  it,  and 


48 


■wc  may  then  take  measures  to  avoid  being  mixed  up  with  the 
quarrels  of  Uncle  Sam. 

But  there  are  other  agencies  operating  against  us — resisting 
the  construction  of  a  highway  across  the  continent.  The  ship- 
pers and  manufacturers  of  the  Atlantic  States  are  also  actively 
employed  in  opposing  this  continental  connection.  They  are  now 
having  a  large  trade  with  us,  and  are  enjoying  a  high  state  of 
prosperity,  while  our  people  are  almost  all  prostrated  under  the 
effects  of  injuries  inflicted  upon  us,  these  men  openly  acknowl- 
edge that  they  want  no  continental  railroad,  for  if  that  is  con- 
structed, their  laboring  population  will  leave  them  for  the  Far 
West.  Now  they  are  making  money  out  of  our  country,  and  as 
long  as  they  can  keep  us  isolated  from  them,  they  can  afford  to 
pay  good  wages  to  their  workmen.  They  say  our  country  is  only 
a  place  for  persons  to  go  to,  to  make  a  few  thousand  dollars,  and 
then  return  home  again, — that  no  one  ever  expects  to  live  perma- 
nently here, — that  thic  country  is  only  intended  as  a  means  of 
benefiting  the  old  States  ;  but  that  if  a  Railroad  should  be  con- 
structed across  the  continent,  then  the  Pacific  coast  would  fill  up 
with  an  immense  population  from  the  Atlantic  States. 

When  these  men  lose  money  from  the  sale  of  their  goods  in 
California,  they  hesitate  not  to  denounce  our  people  as  thieves 
and  robbers — as  those  who  live  upon  the  people  of  the  Atlantic 
States.  If  our  semi-monthly  steamers  ever  arrive  in  New  York, 
bringing  an  aggregate  shipment  of  gold  less  than  two  millions 
of  dollars,  these  people  invariably  commence  abusing  us,  and  they 
are  very  frequently  backed  by  the  newspaper  press  of  the  coun- 
try. They  commence  exclaiming,  that  the  bottom  of  California 
has  dropped  out, — that  the  mines  have  all  been  exhausted,  and 
that  our  people  have  all  bursted, — that  they  knew  how  it  would 
be  with  those  persons  who  were  fools  enough  to  come  out  to  this 
country, — that  they  expect  nothing  else  than  that  the  people  of 
California  will  become  a  charge  upon  those  of  the  Atlantic  States ; 
and  they  never  fail  to  circulate  the  most  offensive  and  degrading 
statements  about  the  moral  character  of  our  country.  Oh  I  these 
hypocrites  and  whited  sepulchres !  how  dare  they  thus  insult  us  ? 
After  many  years  long  absence  from  our  kith  and  kin, — after 
many  years  hard  toil  and  labor  to  enrich  them,  and  to  give  pros- 
perity to  our  whole  country, — it  is  thus  that  they  show  their  grati- 
tude towards  us  1 


th 


4T 

They  have  been  warned  again  and  again,  not  to  send  out  here 
their  old  wares  and  merchandise, — that  our  country  was  already 
glutted  with  them, — yet,  in  the  face  of  these  warnings,  they  con- 
tinued to  send  them.  If  they  have  lost  by  such  shipments,  then 
we  are  gratified  to  hear  of  it.  Would  that  they  had  broken  them 
all  up!  Many  of  them  will  recollect  telling  me  and  others,  that 
they  generally  sent  to  California  their  unsaleable  goods.  If  they 
suppose  we  want  any  of  their  old  worn  out  clothing  and  damaged 
meats  and  provisions,  they  are  very  much  mistaken.  When  our 
merchants  want  goods  of  any  kind,  they  will  send  for  them,  and 
pay  for  them  too.  But  if  these  Atlantic  shippers  and  manufac- 
turers send  us  for  sale,  merchandise  we  have  not  ordered,  and 
they  lose  money  by  the  operation,  let  them  lay  the  blame  to  them- 
selves. If  the  same  amount  of  goods  which  have  been  shipped 
here  per  annum,  had  been  shipped  to  Connecticut  or  South  Caro- 
lina for  sale,  they  never  would  have  brought  enough  to  pay  the 
freight  on  them.  No  merchants  in  the  world  have  exerted  them- 
selves to  save  the  property  of  shippers  from  loss,  like  the  mer- 
chants of  California.  In  fact,  many  of  them  have  broken  them- 
selves up  by  it.  No  country  on  the  globe,  with  the  same  popula- 
tion, has  consumed  or  made  use  of  so  much  merchandise  as  Cali- 
fornia, Oregon  and  Washington,  considering  the  limited  time  the 
people  here  have  occupied  this  country. 

But  it  is  not  a  highway  across  the  continent  only,  that  these 
people  oppose  ;  but  they  will  not  let  us  have  even  a  Telegraph 
lino.  They  well  know  that  if  a  Telegraph  line,  or  a  road  of  any 
kind,  should  be  constructed,  it  would  cause  settlements  to  be  es- 
tablished along  the  route,  and  open  the  way  for  a  stage  line  or 
Railroad  from  ocean  to  ocean.  This,  of  course,  would  lessen  the 
travel  between  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  States,  by  the  way  of 
Panama  and  San  Juan.  It  would  also  unite  the  great  West  and 
Southwest  with  us.  When  this  should  take  place,  they  are  well 
aware  the  farthest  way  home  route  would  be  abandoned.  It  re- 
mains to  be  seen  whether  the  now  powerful  States,  West  and 
Southwest  of  the  Alleghanies,  will  permit  Eastern  capitalists, 
shippers  and  manufacturers,  to  oppress  and  overburden  both  them 
and  us, — to  discriminate  against  those  who  inhabit  the  most  ex- 
tensive, productive  and  powerful  portion  of  the  Republic. 

What  has  California,  Oregon  and  Washington  not  done  for  the 
Federal  Government,  and  the  people  of  the  Atlantic  States,  since 


48 


they  have  been  occupied  by  our  people.  Wo  have,  by  the  mag- 
nificence of  onr  mineral  wealth,  increased  the  real  and  personal 
property  of  New  York  city  and  vicinity,  full  seventy-live  millions 
of  dollars,  while  the  real  and  personal  pro|)orty  of  San  Francisco 
is  only  estimated,  at  the  present  time,  at  thirty-nine  millions  of 
dollars.  During  the  same  i)eriod  of  time,  we  have  also  increased 
the  value  of  the  real  and  personal  property  of  Boston,  Philadel- 
phia, Baltimore,  and  other  Atlantic  cities,  from  ten  to  twenty 
millions  each,  and  the  aggregate  value  of  the  real  and  personal 
property  of  all  the  Atlantic  States,  over  two  hundred  millions  of 
dollars,  and  yet  the  people  on  the  other  side  denounce  us  as  rob- 
bers, and  as  stipendiaries  upon  their  bounty.  We  hiss  and  scorn 
such  insults.  What  have  we  not  done  for  the  wheat-growers  and 
millers  of  Western  New  York  and  Eastern  Virginia?  Have  wo 
not  paid  them  millions  of  dollars  for  their  flour  ?  Have  we  not 
paid  the  ii-on  manufacturers  and  nail  cutters  of  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  Virginia,  millions  of  dollars  for 
their  nails  and  iron  ?  Have  we  not  paid  Maryland,  Pennsylva- 
nia and  Virginia,  millions  of  dollars  for  their  coal  ?  Have  we 
not  paid  millions  of  dollars  to  the  tobacco  growers  and  manufac- 
turers of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky*  Ohio,  and  other 
States,  for  their  tobacco  ?  Virginia  farmers  f  lone  have  enjoyed 
an  immense  trade  with  us  in  flour  and  tobacco.  Have  we  not 
paid  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Florida  and  North  Carolina,  vast 
sums  of  money  for  their  rice,  pitch,  tar,  turpentine,  and  lumber? 
Have  we  not  paid  millions  of  dollars  to  the  Eastern  and  Western 
States,  for  cured  meats  and  other  provisions,  and  the  people  of 
the  Eaotcrn  and  other  manufacturing  States,  millions  on  millions 
for  their  manufactured  goods  ? 

What  was  the  condition  of  the  Western  and  South  Western 
States  in  1849  ?  Then,  vast  numbers  left  that  part  of  the  Union 
for  Calforuia  and  Oregon.  While  this  emigration  was  going  on, 
some  of  the  papers  in  that  region  spoke  as  if  they  supposed  the 
great  West  and  South  West,  would  soon  be  depopulated.  How 
false  have  boon  their  predictions  ?  Why,  the  people  of  the  Pa- 
cific coast  have  purchased  in  the  North  Western,  Western,  and 
South  Western  States,  over  four  hundred  thousand  head  of  cattle; 
horses  and  mules,  and  they  have  paid  for  them.  In  1849,  cows 
were  selling  in  that  part  of  the  Atlantic  States,  at  from  seven  to 
twelve  dollars  per  head ;  now,  none  can  be  purchased  for  less 


49 

than  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  dollars  per  head.  In  addition  to 
all  this,  millions  of  dollars  have  been  expended  in  saddles,  har- 
ness, wagons,  earriages  and  provisions.  We  have  increased  the 
value  of  the  real  and  personal  property  of  these  States  since  1849, 
at  least  eighty  millions  of  dollars,  and  yet,  for  all  this  wo  get 
nothing  but  abuse  and  denunciation.  Even  the  ship  tonnage  of 
the  United  States  has  been  increased,  since  1849,  through  our 
countr  ',  over  one  million  two  hundred  thousand  tons.  And,  for 
all  the?e  groat  benefits,  the  whole  country  is  indebted  to  the  la- 
bors of  the  hardy  pioneers  and  permanent  inhabitants  of  the 
Pacific  coost. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


It  has  become  a  very  common  remark,  on  the  part  of  the  Fed- 
eral Authorities,  in  Washington,  that  the  people  of  this  country 
are  reckless  and  indifferent  about  their  official  obligations  ;  and 
the  people  on  the  other  side  of  the  continent  never  fail  to  re- 
proach us  with  being  delinquent  in  all  our  commercial  transac- 
tions and  business  affairs,  and  that  we  live  upon  the  bounty  and 
labor  of  those  in  the  Atlantic  States.  Let  us  see  how  this  first 
charge  will  bear  examination.  Now,  it  is  a  well  known  fact,  that 
there  was  comparatively  no  thieving,  no  malfeasance  in  office,  and 
no  lawless  acts  committed  iv  any  of  our  people,  until  the  Gov- 
ernment in  Washington  set  us  an  example.  When  it  attempted, 
in  the  most  unblushing  manner,  to  seize  ail  of  our  mineral  lands, 
for  the  i)urpose  of  leasing  or  selling  them  to  Atlantic  and  Euro- 
pean capitalists  ;  when  it  succeeded  in  outlawing  all  of  our  land 
titles,  and  declared  it  to  be  its  unalterable  determination  not  to 
let  a  single  pioneer  or  native  have  one  foot  of  land  in  this  country, 
then  the  thieves,  who  had  before  tliat  been  kept  under  restraint, 
commenced  their  operations,  and  the  Federal  Government  has  the 
credit  of  being  the  first  to  set  them  upon  us.  No  robbing,  com- 
paratively, took  place  in  California,  until  it  was  found  out  that 
the  authorities  in  Washington  were  determined,  if  they  could,  to 
rob  us  of  all  our  mineral  and  agricultural  lands.  Tlicy  were, 
therefore,  the  first  to  show  themselves  reckless  and  indifferent 
4 


60 


about  tlicir  odicial  and  legal  obligations.  However  much  wo 
may  have  suirerod  IVoui  the  acts  of  couvicts  and  crimiiuiirt,  none 
of  them  have  injured  us  half  so  much  as  tiiat  very  Government 
which  had  pledged  itself  to  {)rotoct  us.  After  it  had  commenced 
a  crusado  against  all  of  our  property,  and  set  loose  u[)on  us  any 
quantity  of  robbers,  it  then  denounced  the  whole  of  us  as  un- 
trustworthy. 

The  pioneers  of  California  know  that  what  we  have  stated  is 
the  "  truth  of  history."  Every  one  hero  looked  upon  the  agri- 
cultural lands  of  our  country  as  having  been  virtually  outlawed 
by  the  Government  at  Washington,  and  that  it  was  determined 
to  make  a  desperate  struggle  to  take  from  our  people  all  of  their 
mineral  lands.  Before  this,  it  well  known  fact,  that  but  few 
ever  closed  their  doors  after  n  that  one-half  their  goods  re- 

mained outside  of  their  buildings, — and  that  gold  dust  could  re- 
main on  the  counter  all  day,  and  all  night,  and  no  one  would  dare 
to  molest  it.  But,  as  soon  as  it  became  known  that  the  Federal 
Authorities,  in  Washington,  were  aiming  to  got  possession  of  all 
the  mineral  and  agricultural  lands  of  the  State,  then  a  part  of 
the  State  and  Municipal  officers,  and  the  rouges  of  all  countries, 
commenced  their  thieving  warfare  upon  us,  and  we  regret  very 
much  to  say,  that  we  have  never  yet  got  fairly  rid  of  them. 

The  Vigilance  Counnittee,  composed  of  some  of  the  best  men 
in  the  State,  in  1851,  hung  a  portion  of  these  thieves,  and  trans- 
ported others,  and  thus  saved  us  from  being  robbed  of  all  oui* 
personal  property.  These  very  men  who  were  hung,  as  well  as 
those  that  were  transported,  admitted  that  they  never  would  have 
acted  as  they  did,  had  they  not  seen  a  disposition,  on  the  part  of 
the  Federal,  State  and  Municipal  authorities,  to  plunder  the 
country.  They  then  acted  as  if  the  whole  State  was  going  to 
reck,  and  they  determined  to  resume  their  old  profession  of 
thieving.  They  admitted  that  they  justly  deserved  the  punish- 
ment which  the  Vigilance  Committee  had  inflicted  upon  them, 
but  they  all  said  that  they  thought  those  who  set  them  the  exam- 
ple ought  likewise  to  be  punished.  They  spoke  the  truth,  and  all 
were  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  justice  of  it.  No  country, 
and  no  people  have  been  so  deeply  wronged  as  the  people  of  the 
State  of  California,  by  those  entrusted  with  power.  The  history 
of  the  whole  civilized  world  may  be  searched  in  vain,  to  find  a 
case  equal,  for  oppression  and  injustice,  to  that  inflicted  on  this 


51 


young  Commonwealth,  by  the  Federal,  Ptato  and  Municipal  au- 
thoi'itlcH.  IJad  tlie  Federal  Ciovernmcnt  not  been  apprehensive 
that  we  would  have  hunj?  all  the  Federal  oflficera  and  agents  sent 
out  here  to  dispose  of  our  mineral  lands,  it  is  very  evident  that 
it  would  have  sold  them  long  before  this.  Of  course,  we  attribute 
much  of  their  conduct  towards  this  State,  to  their  ignorance  of 
the  condition  of  our  country.  It  was  our  firmness,  and  its  fears, 
liowever,  that  saved  our  State  from  being  utterly  prostrated. 

The  Federal  Oflicers,  in  this  country,  have  always  been  consid- 
ered a8  mere  stool-pigeons  of  the  General  Government.  They 
have  always  bc'(>n  so  tied  up  by  the  authorities  in  Washington,  as 
to  render  the ii  jiositions  anything  but  pleasant.  None  of  them 
are  trusted,  and  all  of  them  are  surrounded  by  spies,  sent  out 
here  from  the  Atlantic  States.  These  California  Federal  Officers 
are  always  required  to  spend  their  time  and  money  for  the  "  Pow- 
ers That  Be  ;"  and  as  soon  as  they  fail  to  obey,  in  all  things,  they 
are  most  generally  dismissed  from  the  service,  and  pronounced 
defaulters.  All  the  Collectors  of  the  Port  of  San  Francisco, 
Avith  the  exception  of  Mr.  Latham,  the  present  incumbent,  and  all 
the  Indian  Superintendents  and  Agents  of  the  State,  have  been 
declared  defaulters,  and  it  will  ever  remain  the  case,  so  long  as  a 
Federal  Officer  is  true  to  this  country,  and  refuses  to  be  made  a 
menial  I'lave  to  the  authorities  in  Washington.  It  appears  to 
have  been,  and  still  is,  the  settled  policy  of  each  Federal  Admin- 
istration, to  make  out  a  bad  case  against  all  the  United  States 
Officers  in  this  country,  they  cannot  use.  It  is  not  our  intention 
to  shield  any  of  the  Federal  Officers  in  California,  who  may  vio- 
late their  official  oaths,  or  unlawfully  make  use  of  the  powers 
confided  to  them,  or  the  public  funds  entrusted  to  their  keeping. 

One  thing  is  evident,  to  every  intelligent  citizen  in  this  oun- 
try, — every  public  man  who  has  attempted  to  uphold  and  defend 
the  conduct  and  policy  of  the  General  Govcrnnaent  towards  Cali- 
fornia, has  always  been  deserted  by  the  people,  and  politically 
prostrated  in  the  State.  If  any  one  desires  to  blast  his  political 
prospects  forever,  let  him  vindicate  the  "  old  fogies  "  and  "  dug- 
outs "  in  Washington,  and  he  will  soon  go  by  the  board.  No  act 
would  create  a  bigger  disgust,  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this 
State,  than  a  defence  of  these  old  Washington  rats.  They  are 
considered  as  being  at  least  sixty  years  behind  the  age,  and  as 
knowing  comparatively  nothing  about  the  country,  but  what  trans- 


52 


pires  within  the  "  City  of  Magnificent  Distances."  The  people 
on  this  coast  are  too  independent  and  intelligent,  to  be  "  booted 
and  spu'i'red,"  and  dragged  about  and  used  by  fhose  who  are 
puffed  up  with  a  "  little  brief  authority,"  in  the  Federal  City. 

Not  long  since,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Guthrie, 
was  guilty  of  an  act  of  unpardonable  injustice  to  Judge  Hoff- 
man, Judge  of  the  United  States  District  Court,  for  Northern 
California,  which  produced  universal  contempt  for  that  high  Fed- 
eral Official,  in  all  parts  of  this  country.  It  appears  that  Levy, 
one  of  the  firm  of  St.  Losky,  Levy  &  Co.,  who  was  arrested  in 
San  Francisco,  for  smuggling,  and  for  which  crime  he  was  tried 
and  convicted,  and  afterwards  pardoned  by  the  President,  has  a 
brother  living  in  Havana.  When  he  discovered  that  his  brother 
in  California  had  bton  arrested,  and  was  about  to  be  tried  for  the 
crime  be  had  committed,  this  brother  in  Havana  attempted  to 
br^c  certain  Custom  Hous)  Officers  in  Cuba,  wuh  the  view  of 
suppressing  all  information  which  might  be  used  to  the  prejudice 
of  Levy,  in  Californir..  After  he  had  arranged,  for  this  purpose, 
to  his  satisfaction,  with  the  Custom  House  Officers  of  Havana, 
he  then  approached  Mr.  Savage,  the  Secretary  of  the  American 
Consul.  He  said  to  Mr.  Savage,  that  his  brother  in  California 
would  not  be  convicted — that  the  Judge  that  was  to  try  him 
"was  all  right,"  (meaning  Judge  Hoffman,) — and  that  he  was 
willing  to  pay  to  the  Secretary  one  hundred  and  fifty  doubloons, 
if  he  would  withhold  certain  official  information  against  liis 
brother.  Mr.  Savage  communicated  these  facts  to  the  Consul, 
Mr.  W.  H.  Robertson,  and  he  communicated  tliciii,  in  a  private 
and  unofficial  note,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Guth- 
rie, instead  of  sending  this  charge  against  Judge  Hoffman  to  him 
in  person,  to  enable  him  to  defend  himself  against  it,  sends  it  to 
Col.  Inge,  the  United  States  District  Attorney.  While  lliesc 
docmnents  were  on  file,  in  Mr.  Inge'i3  office,  it  appears  the  city 
reporters  obtained  possession  of  them,  and  published  their  con- 
tents to  the  world,  before  Judge  Hoffman  Avas  aware  of  the  ex- 
istence cf  this  foul  aspersion  on  his  Judicial  integrity  and  repu- 
tation. The  first  information  he  had  of  this  unfounded  and  un- 
sustained  charge,  was  in  reading  the  morning  papers  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, which  contained  it.  What  could  have  been  the  motive  of 
Mr.  Guthrie,  in  sending  this  grave  charge  against  Judge  Hoff- 
man, "  the  truth  of  which  he  himself  did  not  believe,"  to  the  Dis- 


68 


3  people 
'  booted 
vho  are 
:itY. 
Grutbrie, 
ro  Hoff- 
[orthern 
igh  Fed- 
at  Levy, 
cstcd  in 
as  tried 
it,  has  a 
1  brother 
d  for  the 
[iptcd  to 

view  of 
prejudice 
purpose, 
Havana, 
hnerican 
alifornia 

try  him 

he  was 
)ubloons, 
linst  his 

Consul, 
I  private 
Ir.  Guth- 
m  to  him 
'nds  it  to 
ilo  ilicsc 
<  the  city 

icir  con- 

f  the  cx- 
uid  repu- 
1  and  un- 

an  Fran- 
iiotive  of 
Igo  Hoff- 
»  the  Dis- 


trict Attorney,  instead  of  to  Judge  Hoffman.  The  charge  con- 
tained in  Mr.  Consul  Robertson's  letter,  concerned  Judge  Hoffman 
and  no  one  else.  Certainly  the  Secretary's  conduct,  in  this  case, 
appears  as  if  he  intended  to  blast  the  standing  and  reputation  of 
the  Judge  of  the  United  States  District  of  Northern  California. 
If  he  did  not  intend  to  do  so,  he  would  have  sent  the  correspon- 
dence to  Judge  Hoffman. 

The  authorities  in  Wasliington  have  always  "  aided  and  abet- 
ted," in  circulating  slanders  about  the  people  of  this  country, 
although  it  is  a  well  known  fact,  that  they  draw  the  principal 
part  of  their  revenues  from  the  mines  of  California.  The  most 
of  them  are  a  set  of  "  old  rats  "  and  "  spavin  legged  nags,"  who 
have  been  living  on  the  public  (to  the  exclusion  of  their  betters) 
nearly  all  the  days  of  their  lives.  They  have  none  of  the  states- 
manship, patriotism,  energy  of  character,  comprehensiveness  and 
ability  of  those  mighty  men  who  have  preceded  them  in  the  pub- 
lic service.  Their  living  superiors  in  this  country  have  never 
held  any  office.  The  times  for  the  employment  of  great  men  in 
the  service  of  the  country,  appears  to  have  passed  away,  and  mere 
pigmies  now  fill  the  places  where  intellectual  giants  formerly  pre- 
sided and  controlled  the  destinies  of  this  great  Republic. 

They  act  as  if  there  was  no  such  an  ocean  as  the  Pacific.  That 
little  "  fish  pond,"  called  the  Atlantic,  they  consider  as  the  only 
ocean  on  which  floats  the  great  commercial  and  naval  power  of 
the  world.  Nearly  all  of  tlieir  legislation  is  confined  to  that  old 
"  duck  pond."  Although  the  evidence  is  within  their  reach,  yet 
they  appear  ne  jr  to  have  known  the  fact,  that  the  annual  float- 
ing marine  trinage  employed  in  the  Pacific  is,  at  this  time,  larger 
than  that  employed  in  the  Atlantic,  and  for  the  future  it  will  al- 
ways bo  increasing  over  that  of  the  Atlantic.  They  have  never 
considered  the  fact,  that  two-thirds  of  the  human  race  reside  within 
the  Islands  of,  or  around  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  ocean.  This 
great  ocean,  on  a  part  of  whose  shores  we  reside,  is  already  the 
chief  highway  of  nations  ;  and  yet,  it  is  strange  that  the  authori- 
ties at  Washington  know  nothing,  comparatively,  of  what  is  tak- 
ing place  in  this  vast  trading  and  commercial  region  of  the  world. 
0,  foolish  and  perverse  statesmen  !  "  who  has  bewitched  you  ?  " 
"What  can  the  "  gr^at  men  in  buckram,"  in  the  Federal  City,  be 
thinking  of?  Do  they  not  know  that  the  great  contest  between  the 
maritime  States  of  the  world  is  soon  to  come  off,  for  the  commer- 


64 


cial  supremacy  of  the  Pacific  ?  Why  is  Russia  now  willing  to 
make  peace  with  the  Allies  on  such  liberal  terms  ?    It  is  this. 

Russia  has  determined,  for  the  present,  to  abandon  the  contest 
for  the  possession  and  control  of  the  Dardanelles,  to  enable  her  to 
have  a  free  outlet  into  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Atlantic  for 
her  naval  and  commercial  marine.  We  have  it  on  good  authori- 
ty, that  as  soon  as  peace  has  been  concluded,  she  will  then  trans- 
fer all  her  energies  and  power  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening 
her  dominion  on  this  Ocean.  She  can  afford  to  submit  to  certain 
temporary  restrictions  on  the  Atlantic,  for  the  sake  of  getting 
the  better  of  the  European  Powers  on  the  Pacific.  No  country 
possesses  superior  advantages  to  lier,  for  the  accomplishment  of 
this  great  object.  The  Amour  River,  whose  waters  form  a  part 
of  this  great  ocean,  is  navigable  two  thousand  two  hundred 
miles  from  its  mouth,  back  into  the  interior  of  the  Empire,  and 
this  whole  distance  is  now  navigated  by  small  steamers,  built  on 
the  Western  Rivers  of  the  United  States.  The  larger  part  of 
the  country  through  which  it  runs,  contains  a  rich  alluvial  soil, 
and  is  said  to  be  very  productive.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Amour 
she  can,  and  no  doubt  will,  establish  a  large  commercial  city  and 
a  vast  naval  depot.  When  this  is  done,  she  has  all  China  and 
Japan  at  her  immediate  command,  and  if  she  is  but  true  to  her- 
self, she  can  there  lay  the  foundations  of  one  of  the  mightiest 
con  mercial  cities  in  the  world. 

Ei.gland  has  all  of  Australia  and  the  principal  part  of  Eastern 
Asia,  and  the  Indian  Archipelago,  as  well  as  namerous  islands  in 
the  South  Pacific.  France,  Spain,  Portugal  and  Holland,  have 
also  planted  themselves  in  different  parts  of  this  great  ocean,  and 
these  Governments  are  true  to  their  people.  But  our  Govern, 
ment,  like  a  miserable  old  miser  and  dotard,  is  hampering  and 
tying  us  up  here  as  if  it  intended  to  drive  us  from  the  country 
altogether.  It  takes  no  interest  in  our  prosperty  and  success.  It 
appreciates  none  of  the  pride  and  energy  we  exhibit  for  the 
spread  of  our  commerce  and  manufactures,  institutions,  dominion, 
and  power  in  this  vast  region  of  the  globe.  Even  the  washwo- 
men in  Ihis  country  take  more  interest  in  its  welfare,  than  a  ma- 
jority of  those  in  Washington,  who  are  entrusted  with  official 
responsibility  and  the  control  of  the  destinies  of  this  Great  Re- 
public. If  somo  of  them  would  come  to  this  part  of  the  Union 
and  see  what  we  have  been  doing  for  [our  whole  country,  they 


66 

might  go  back  homo  again  wiser  and  better  men.  They  would 
then  see  how  ridiculoua  they  had  been  acting  towards  that  part 
of _  the  Union  to  which  we  belong. 


CHAPTER  X. 


The  pioneers  of  every  country  have  always  had  to  prepare  the 
way  for  others  ;  to  settle  new  regions  of  the  world,  at  their 
own  expense  ;  to  lay  the  foundation  of  new  States  and  Empires, 
as  well  as  new  commercial  cities  ;  to  be  the  first  to  diffuse  the 
principles  of  civil  liberty,  education,  and  christian  civilization, 
and  otherwise  "  redeem,  regenerate  and  disentral"  mankind. 
The  people  and  cnimtry  for  whom  they  thus  spend  their  time  and 
labor,  most  generally  oppress  them  as  well  as  underrate  their 
services.  'lose  who  remain  at  home  and  have  the  control  of  the 
Governmciii.  ^cnorally  regard  such  men  :i-  a' venturers,  who  P'-e 
never  to  bo  consulted  i'l  tho  administraii  n  of  political  affairs. 
Those  who  never  tra\  ol,  nt  least  ovc  ♦^heir  own  country,  art.  rare- 
ly ever  practical  men.  Especially  i.^  this  the  case  with  all  those 
who  are  employed  in  the  public  service.  While  the  Government 
is  able  to  pay  them  their  salario-.  they  are  contented  to  remain 
at  home  and  live  in  luxury  and  ^ lioness.  They  consider  them- 
selves a  privileged  class,  as  men  much  "  wiser  than  their  genera- 
tion." This  is  the  case  with  the  majority  of  those  who  are  now 
connected  with  public  affairs  in  Was'  agton,  and  are  directing 
the  destinies  of  the  country.  Tli'  are  unfit  for  the  places  they 
now  fill.  Their  minds  are  too  contracted,  and  tlieir  knowloge  of 
the  people,  the  condition  and  progress  of  this  extended  and  ex- 
tending Republic,  is  too  limited  to  make  them  safe  statesmen  and 
law  nuikers.  They  invariably  look  upon  those  who  are  pioneers 
and  forerunners,  those  who  are  settling  the  public  domain  and 
building  up  new  States  and  new  cities,  as  having,  comp'  ratively, 
but  few  political  rights,  and  of  no  consideration  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  public  affairs. 

The  British  Cabinet  in  tho  reign  of  George  the  Third,  ever 
regarded  the  pioneers  of  America  as  "  hewers  of  wood  and  draw- 
ers of  water"  to  t'le  Home  Government  in  England.     Our  fathers 


66 


were  never  allowed  to  have  any  voice  in  the  administration  of  the 
Government.  Offices  were  all  given  to  the  favorites  of  the  Gov- 
ernment at  home,  and  they  were  shipped  to  America  at  public  ex- 
pense, to  rule  over  the  country  and  to  cat  out  its  substance.  If 
our  ancestors  complained  of  such  injustice,  they  were  reproached 
and  frequently  punished  for  their  complaints.  Great  Britain  con- 
tinued to  pursue  this  tyrannical  policy,  and  although  our  ancestors 
remonstrated  against  it,  and  said  that  they  would  resist  if  these 
grievances  were  not  abated,  yet  the  British  Cabinet  heeded  not 
these  warnings.  Finally,  to  show  their  contempt  for  our  fathers, 
they  attempted  to  exact  an  unconstitutional  tax  from  them,  even 
by  force  of  arms.  This,  of  course,  led  to  an  open  rupture  be- 
tween England  and  her  colonics,  and  both  parties  made  an  appeal 
to  arms  for  the  settlement  of  their  difficulties.  .  The  ignorance 
manifested  by  the  Home  Government  of  the  character  of  our 
fathers  and  the  condition  of  their  country,  as  well  as  its  head- 
strong obstinacy  towards  the  people  of  America,  lost  the  king  an 
Empire,  and  compelled  that  haughty  Government  to  knuckle  un- 
der to  those  very  men  whom  the  British  King  and  his  Cabinet 
had  always  held  in  such  utter  contempt  and  derision.  Let  the 
Government  at  Washington  take  warning  from  those  facts,  and 
avoid  treating  the  people  on  the  Paciiic  coast  for  the  future,  as 
the  British  Government  treated  our  ancestors,  for  its  course  to- 
wards us  inay  be  attended  with  the  same  results  that  attended  the 
contest  between  the  colonies  and  England. 

The  United  States  came  very  near  committing  some  very  egre- 
geous  blunders  growing  out  of  this  very  indifference  to  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  pioneers  even  as  early  as  1783.  It  will  be 
recollected  by  those  who  have  studied  the  legislative  and  diplo- 
matic history  of  this  country,  that  after  our  revolutionary  army 
under  Washington  had  achieved  the  important  victory  over  the 
disciplined  Iroops  of  Great  Britain,  at  the  battle  of  Yorktowu, 
the  general  impression  prevailed,  and  very  justly  prevailed,  in  the 
United  States,  that  England  would  not  maintain  the  contest 
against  llie  colonies  any  longer.  The  result  proved  that  this 
opinion  w  ;is  correct.  The  Continental  Congress,  therefore,  pre- 
pai'cd  to  treut  with  the  King  of  Great  Britain  for  a  general 
peace  and  the  acknowlcgement  of  our  independence.  Here,  a  diffi- 
culty arose  with  our  fathers,  whether  they  should  insist  upon  Great 
Britain's  acknowledging  our  claim  to   all  of   her  possessions 


67 


in  the  United  States  of  America.  Some  considered  that  they 
should  ask  for  no  more  than  what  is  now  known  as  the  thirteen 
orijjinal  States,  and  thus  restrict  the  limits  of  the  United  States 
to  that  part  of  the  country  lying  east  of  the  Allegany  Mountains. 
Others  contended  that  we  nmst  have  all  the  country  held  by  Eng- 
land previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
This  division  of  opinion  among  the  statesmen  of  that  day,  came 
near  loosing  us  the  whole  Western,  North  Western,  and  South 
Western  States. 

When  our  Commissioners,  viz :  Benjamin  Franklin,  Henry 
Laurens  and  John  Adams,  appointed  by  the  Continental  Con- 
gress to  treat  with  Great  Britain  and  France,  for  a  general  peace 
and  the  acknowledgment  of  our  independence,  made  their  appear- 
ance on  the  pari  of  the  colonies,  they  found  themselves  surround- 
ed and  annoyed  by  conflicting  interests.  England  was  willing 
to  acknowledge  the  indedepeudence  of  the  thirteen  Colonies, 
but  she  insisted  upon  holding  on  to  all  the  Territories  West, 
North  West,  and  South  West  of  the  Allegany  Mountains,  which 
she  had  taken  from  France  in  a  previous  wav.  On  the  other 
hand,  France  desired  the  United  States  to  transfer  to  her  all 
the  Territories  in  that  part  of  America  which  England  had  con- 
quered from  her,  in  consideration  of  the  naval  ard  military  ser- 
vices she  had  rendered  to  our  country  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 
France,  like  England,  was  also  in  favor  of  restricting  the  United 
States  to  the  Territories  of  the  Union  lying  East  of  the  Allegany 
Mountains.  Spain  held  oflF,  and  rcifuscd  to  treat,  as  she  was  not 
inclined  to  take  sides  until  she  found  out  how  matters  would  ter- 
minate. It  was  a  fortunate  thing  for  tiiC  country  that  it  had  such 
able,  farseeing,  and  patriotic  negotiators  as  Franklin,  Adams  and 
Laurens,  on  that  occasion. 

Our  Commissioners  refused  to  yield  an  inch  to  either  England 
or  France.  They  preferred  rather  to  re-open  the  war  than  to  sur- 
render one  jot  or  tittle  of  their  country.  They  were  resolved  to 
have  all  the  Territory  claimed  by  England  previous  to  the  war, 
or  go  back  and  fight  the  Revolution  over  again.  Their  firmness, 
and  the  rivalry  and  jealousy  existing  between  England  and  France, 
enabled  them,  finally  to  triumph.  Great  Britain  could  never  con- 
sent that  France  should  ever  get  possession  of  the  great  Western, 
South  Western,  and  North  Western  portions  of  America.  She 
therefore  yielded  to  the  claims  of  our  Commissioners,  and  acknow- 


58 


ledged,  not  only  our  independence,  but  our  claim  to  the  whole  of 
her  dominions  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  France,  of 
course,  had  to  consent  to  this  arrangement,  and  then  Spain,  like 
a  whipped  hound,  came  in,  and  was  exceedingly  anxious  to  show 
her  I'cadiness  to  treat  with  our  Commissioners,  and  to  acknowl- 
edge our  independence.  The  United  States  were  then  right  on 
the  borders  of  some  of  hjr  colonies  in  America,  and  she  might 
well  afford,  after  England  and  France  had  acknowledged  our  in- 
dependence, to  affect  some  magnanimity  towards  us,  but  before 
that,  she  stood  aloof  from  our  Commissioners. 

King  George  the  Third,  however,  never  forgave  the  people  of 
America  for  separating  from  Great  Britain,  or  our  Commissioners 
for  out-witting  and  over-reaching  him  in  the  Treaty  of  1783.  Great 
Britain  utterly  refused,  in  compliance  with  this  Treaty,  to  give 
up  her  posts  in  the  Northwest  and  West,  and  she  never  did  give 
them  up  until  she  was  forced  to  do  it.  She  protected  the  Indians 
and  induced  them  to  combine  against  oxir  country,  and  to  make 
war  on  the  pioneers  who  then  inhabited  that  now  magnificent 
portion  of  this  Union.  This  she  did,  as  we  have  before  said,  in 
direct  violation  of  a  solemn  Treaty,  and  her  refusal  to  do  so,  be- 
came one  of  the  chief  grounds  of  our  second  war  with  her  for 
independence.  Spain,  for  the  most  of  this  time,  held  all  that  part 
of  the  West  and  Southwest,  known  as  the  Louisiana  purchase. 
She  also  played  the  same  deceitful  and  treacherous  course  towards 
us  that  England  did.  Agents  were  employed  by  both  of  these 
European  Powers,  to  corrupt  ou."  civil  and  military  officers,  em- 
ployed in  the  public  service  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  it  is 
evident  that  many  of  them  were  corrupted.  It  is  noAv  a  gener- 
ally conceded  fact,  that  Judge  Sebastian,  a  United  States  Judge 
in  Kentucky,  under  the  Administrations  of  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr. 
Jefferson,  was  in  the  pay  of  Spain,  to  decide  against  our  people 
in  his  Courts,  and  to  throw  every  obstacle  in  their  way  possible 
to  prevent  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  River  to  its 
mouth.  He  had  a  salary  of  ^2,000  per  annum  from  th^.  United 
States,  and  the  same  amount  from  Spain,  and  he  rarely  ever  failed 
to  give  Spain,  in  his  decisions,  a  preference  over  the  United 
States.  This  defection  among  a  prominent  class  of  men  in  the 
West,  led  Aaron  Burr,  after  he  had  been  disgraced,  to  enter  upon 
his  treasonable  scheme  for  separating  all  the  Western  and  South- 
western States  and  Territories  from  those  of  the  East,  with  the 


69 


view  of  organizinpf  a  new  Republic  in  that  part  of  America.  His 
arrest  and  trial,  however,  broke  up  this  conspiracy,  and  overthrew 
all  the  plans  of  the  traitors  associated  with  him. 

But  a  more  important  struggle  took  place  in  reference  to  the 
pioneers  of  these  Western  States,  iu  the  Philadelphia  Conven- 
tion, which  framed  and  adopted  the  Federal  Constitution.  Here 
there  were  men  who  not  only  proposed,  but  earnestly  supported 
the  project  of  cutting  off  the  whole  West,  and  to  restrict  the 
limits  of  the  United  States  to  the  country  East  of  the  Allegany 
Mountains.  After  this  scheme  failed,  another  one  was  proposed, 
with  the  view  of  excluding  that  whole  vast  region  of  the  Union. 
That  project  was,  to  make  no  provision  in  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion for  the  admission  of  new  States.  This  scheme,  like  the  for- 
mer one,  also  failed.  They  were  defeated  by  James  Madison  and 
those  Avho  co-operated  with  him.  But  few  men  have  performed 
such  signal  services  to  the  whole  country  as  James  Madison.  He 
was  a  wise  and  able  statesman,  and  a  pure  patriot,  and  his  memo- 
ry will  ever  be  cherished  by  all  those  who  can  appreciate  a  free 
Constitutional  Government,  the  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the 
freedom  of  speech. 

But  the  pioneers  of  these  now  flourishing  States  had  still  other 
diificulties  to  encounter  and  overcome,  to  save  themselves  and 
their  part  of  the  country  from  additional  restrictions.  The  first 
law  which  was  passed  by  Congress,  providing  for  the  sale  of  the 
public  domain,  divided  up  the  lands  into  parcels  of  six  thousand 
acres  each.  No  one  could  purchase  a  less  amount  of  land  than 
six  thousand  acres.  This  law,  of  course,  placed  all  the  lands  of 
these  Western  Territories  into  the  hands  of  Eastern  capitalists. 
Against  this  oppressive  law,  the  Western  pioneers  made  a  long 
and  obstinate  resistance.  They  finally  succeeded,  through  Gen- 
eral Harrison,  in  having  the  lands  divided  up  into  quarter  sec- 
tions of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres.  This  law  gave  a  new  im- 
petus to  emigration  to  the  West.  But,  this  was  not  a  sufficient 
concession  to  the  people  of  that  part  of  the  Union.  The  next 
great  relief  measure  was  procured  for  them  through  the  exertions 
of  Mr.  Clay,  and  others.  That  great  man  succeeded  in  inducing 
Congress  to  reduce  the  price  of  the  public  lands  to  $i  25  per 
acre  to  all  ..ctual  seLtlers.  After  this,  the  pioneers  succeeded  in 
obtaining  the  right  to  pre-empt  public  lands,  and  to  restrict  every 
purchaser  to  one  quarter  section.    These  great  measures  of  "  de- 


60 


livcrencc  and  liberty  "  saved  the  vast  West,  and  filled  its  immense 
public  domain  with  a  thrifty,  intelligent  and  industrious  popula- 
tion. They  also  released  the  people  of  this  now  powerful  portion 
of  the  Union  from  the  tyranny  of  the  old  States. 

It  is  now  our  painful  and  unfortunate  lot  to  encounter  the  same 
diflBculties  which  the  pioneers  of  the  West  had  to  encounter,  in 
days  that  are  past.  But  if  anything,  our  difficulties  are  more  in- 
tolerable than  those  of  all  the  pioneers  who  have  preceded  us. 
The  illiberality  and  tyranny  exhibited  towards  us  by  the  General 
Government,  and  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  Atlantic  States, 
is  not  only  inexcusable  and  indefensible,  but  it  is  most  shameful 
and  treasonable.  It  is  not  our  purpose,  however,  any  longer  to 
submit  to  the  insolence  of  the  authorities  in  Washington,  and 
those  who  sustain  them  in  the  Atlantic  States.  They  have  rob- 
bed us  of  our  lands,  and  they  have  attempted  to  rob  us  of  our 
mineral  lands  ;  they  have  refused  to  execute  the  laws  passed  by 
Congress  for  the  benefit  of  California  and  the  Pacific  coast ;  they 
have  unjustly  taxed  us  more  than  any  other  people  in  the  United 
States  ;  they  have  kept  us  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  Union  ; 
they  have  refused  to  give  us  any  connection  across  the  continent 
to  the  States  on  the  other  side  ;  they  have  filled  our  country  with 
spies,  to  malign  and  slander  our  people  ;  they  have  picked  up 
men  from  the  debaucheries  of  the  East,  and  shipped  them  out  here 
at  public  expense,  to  displace  Californians  holding  office  under 
the  Federal  Government ;  they  have  withheld  from  us  nearly  two 
million  of  dollars,  acknowledged  to  belong  to  us  ;  they  have  ne- 
glected to  pay  the  pioneer  army  of  California,  for  services  rendered 
in  the  late  war  with  Mexico,  while  they  have  paid  their  regular 
land  and  naval  forces  employed  in  the  same  service  ;  they  have 
neglected  to  pay  for  provisions,  horses,  saddles  and  money  fur- 
nished by  the  pioneers  to  the  California  troops,  and  the  troops  of 
the  United  States  ;  they  have  refused  to  pay  many  of  their  own 
civil  officers  in  this  country,  money  which  they  have  acknowl- 
edged to  belong  to  them  ;  they  have,  for  the  sake  of  embarrass- 
ing those  pioneers  who  held  lands  which  have  been  confirmed  by 
the  Board  of  Land  Commissioners,  ordered  the  United  States 
District  Attorney  to  carry  these  suits  against  the  lands  of  the 
pioneers,  to  the  United  States  District  Courts  of  California,  and 
to  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  while  at  the  same  time  they 
have  refused  to  give  the  Clerks  of  these  District  Courts  money 


01 


to  carry  their  orders  into  effect ;  they  have  refused  to  defend 
and  protect  property  on  whicli  their  own  public  works  are  con- 
structed, thus  compelling  Californians  to  defend,  at  their  own 
expense,  property  belonging  to  the  United  States  ;  they  have, 
while  legislating  for  the  whole  Union,  frequently  left  California, 
Oregon  and  Washington  out  of  the  Act ;  they  have  given  all  con- 
tracts, for  the  construction  of  Government  works  on  the  Pacific, 
to  persona  living  on  the  other  side  of  the  continent,  (with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  San  Francisco  Custom  House,)  in  preference  to 
Californians  ;  they  have  filled  all  their  diplomatic  and  consular 
appointments  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  with  men  selected  from  the 
Atlantic  States — men,  too,  who  have  no  acquaintance  with  our 
part  of  the  country,  and  its  commerce  or  commercial  aflairs  what- 
ever ;  they  have  kept  an  overflowing  Treasury,  by  drawing  every 
dollar  they  could  from  California ;  they  have  refused,  in  every 
instance,  to  respect  our  petitions  and  appeals  to  them  for  redress 
of  these  grievances.  It  is  now,  therefore,  time  that  we  should 
know  and  understand  one  another.  If  the  Government  is  deter- 
mined to  adhere  to  its  past  policy,  we  are  then  prepared  to  take 
our  position,  and  all  the  conscijuences  which  may  attend  it. 

There  is  one  course  pursued  by  the  General  Government 
towards  California,  that  has  never  been  pursued  towards  any 
other  State  or  Territory  in  this  Union.  It  is  too  despotic  and 
insulting  to  be  tolerated  any  longer.  The  Federal  Government 
has  a  regular  established  spy  in  this  country,  and  always  has  had 
one,  whose  province  it  is  to  watch  our  people,  and  especially  the 
merchants  and  the  Federal  Officers,  and  to  report  everything  con- 
nected with  his  office  to  the  President  and  the  Cabinet  at  Wash- 
ington. All  of  his  reports  are  kept  a  profound  secret  from  the 
public  and  the  parties  concerned.  Ho  .v  do  we  know  but  what 
our  people  are  grossly  libelled  and  maligned  by  these  secret 
agents  ?  The  character  of  some  of  them  was  most  grossly  tra- 
duced, under  Mr.  Fillmore's  Administration,  by  the  secret  agent 
then  in  California.  This  system  of  appointing  spies  has  never 
been  known  in  our  country,  until  California  became  a  State.  If 
we  lived  under  the  Governments  of  Austria,  Russia,  or  those 
of  other  despotic  countries,  we  might  expect  to  be  surrounded  by 
Government  spies  ;  but  in  a  free  country  like  this,  such  a  state  of 
things  is  insufferable,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  Federal  Government. 

It  is  said  that  Mr.  J.  H.  Clay  Mudd  held  this  office  in  Califor- 


02 


nia,  under  Mr.  Fillmore.  It  is  now  held  by,  I  understand,  J. 
Ross  Brown,  under  Mr.  Pierce.  His  ooramission  allows,  and 
even  requires  of  him  to  examine  the  accounts  of  all  the  Federal 
Officers,  and  to  call  them  to  account  for  all  their  official  acts,  and 
to  regulate  all  the  contracts  made  by  the  General  Government, 
in  California.  Indeed,  he  has  about  all  the  powers  that  belong 
to  the  President,  and  virtually  supplies  his  place  on  the  Pacific. 
The  Federal  Government  could  not  offer  to  our  State  and  its 
people  a  greater  insult  than  this.  Does  it  suppose  that  all  of  its 
officers,  and  all  of  the  inhabitants  of  California  are  thieves? 
Must  they  be  watched  over  by  men  picked  up  in  Washington,  and 
sent  out  here  at  public  expense  ?  Who  is  to  vouch  for  tliis  se- 
cret agent's  honesty  and  fidelity  ?  Are  his  statements  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  statements  of  such  men  as  Milton  S.  Latham,  Col. 
Jack  Hays,  Major  Snyder,  Judge  Lott,  Mr.  Weller,  and  other 
Federal  Officers?  Did  the  Federal  Government  believe,  when  it 
appointed  these  gentlemen  to  office,  that  they  would  steal,  and 
that  it  was  necessary  to  place  over  them  a  spy  to  watch  them  ? 
lias  ever  yet  any  one  called  in  question  their  official  integrity  ? 

The  office  held  by  Mr.  Brown  is  an  ignoble  one,  and  he  should 
give  it  up.  It  is  offensive  to  the  people  of  California,  and  to  the 
Officers  of  the  Federal  Government.  It  is  in  conflict  with  our 
institutions,  derogatory  to  the  age  in  which  we  live,  and  discredit- 
able to  the  Federal  Government.  Mr.  Brown's  visit  to  Col. 
Monroe  and  Mr.  Johnson — the  former  the  Clerk  of  the  United 
States  District  Court  for  Northern  California,  and  the  latter  the 
Clerk  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  California — ought 
to  satisfy  him  that  gentlemen  in  the  service  of  the  United  States 
are  not  prepared  to  submit  to  domiciliary  visits  from  the  secret 
agents  of  the  President,  to  overhaul  their  accounts  and  call  in 
question  their  official  acts.  We  know  of  some  othei-s  in  the  pub- 
lic service  of  the  United  States,  who  will  give  him  no  very  pleas- 
ant welcome,  should  he  make  a  demand  upon  them  to  give  him  an 
account  of  their  stewardship. 


63 


CHAPTER  XI, 


Long  before  the  people  of  California  became  aware  of  the  ex- 
istence of  war  between  the  United  States  ami  Mexico,  Upper  and 
Lower  California  were  virtually  separated  from  the  last  named 
Republic.  The  oppressive  and  tyrannical  course  of  the  Mexican 
Government  of  California,  towards  our  countrymen,  drove  the 
American  people  then  residing  in  the  State,  to  take  up  arms 
against  their  oppressors.  They  forced  the  Government  to  yield 
to  their  wishes,  and  it  was  not  until  the  United  States  Hag  was 
hoisted  at  Monterey,  in  July,  1840,  that  open  Avar  commenced  be- 
tween the  United  States  troops  and  those  of  Mexico.  As  wo 
have  said  before,  the  country  was  actually  conquered  before  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  was  able  to  render  our  people 
here  any  assistance.  Even  when  the  United  States  troops  did 
come  to  the  rescue  of  the  people  of  California,  they  did  compara- 
tively nothing  towards  achieving  the  conquest  of  the  country. 
All  the  hard  fighting  was  done  by  the  pioneers  then  living  in 
California.  It  is  a  violation  of  the  "  truth  of  history,"  to  give 
the  United  States  land  and  naval  forces  the  credit  of  conquering 
and  suljduing  the  Mexicans.  Some  of  the  U.  S.  officers  cut  a  most 
ludicrous  iigure  in  that  war.  Capt.  Merwin,  Commander  of  the 
United  States  ship-of-war  Savannah,  on  his  march  with  three  hun- 
dred men  from  San  Pedro  to  Los  Angeles,  was  comi)ellcd,  by  one 
hundred  and  fifty  Mexicans,  to  retreat  and  lind  protection  on 
board  of  his  ship.  Now,  we  do  not  undertake  to  say,  that  be- 
cause Capt.  Merwin,  with  three  hundred  men,  was  compelled  to 
retreat  before  one  hundred  and  fifty  Mexicans,  either  he  or  his 
men  were  wanting  in  courage,  but  we  do  mean  to  say  this, — that 
none  of  the  pioneers  ever  had  to  retreat  from  tlie  Mexicans ;  that 
they  never  lost  a  battle,  and  that  some  of  the  United  States 
forces,  when  pursued,  did  retreat,  and  that  they  did  not  achievo 
any  great  victories  in  the  war. 

Some  of  Colonel  Stevenson's  men  did  good  service,  but  I  can- 
not find  where  any  great  deeds  were  performed  Ivy  the  regidar 
forces  of  the  army  and  the  navy.  Many  individuals  belonging  to 
both  these  arms  of  national  defence,  we  admit,  performed  signal 
services  in  the  war,  but  the  "  truth  of  history"  requires  that  the 


64 

credit  of  ccnquorinj^  Culifoniia  from  Mexico,  justly  belongs  to 
the  pioneer  army  under  the  lead  of  Ford,  Fremont,  Gillespie  and 
otlier.s.  All  attempts  to  overrilaugh  the  pioneers  by  the  United 
States  officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  will  fail.  All  bogus  history 
ia  perishable,  and  nothing  but  the  truth  will  live.  Brother  Jon- 
athan's regular  forces  may  continue  to  mr.  rifaeturc  history  about 
the  war  in  California  until  they  have  all  "  kicked  the  bucket"  and 
they  will  accomplish  nothing  for  themselves  after  all. 

"  Truth  crusliod  to  earth  will  rise  ajjfain, 
Thu  eternal  years  ol  (loil  are  her'.s." 

Wc  do  not  wish  to  detract  from  any  portion  of  the  land  and  na- 
val forces  engaged  in  that  war.  No,  wc  would  not  take  from 
them  any  of  the  laurels  justly  belonging  to  them,  but  at  the  same 
time  we  do  not  desire  to  see  the  real  coiiiuerors  of  California 
overslaughed  by  those  who  did  the  least  I.i  Ll.at  contest. 

Not  only  have  the  regular  forces  of  the  army  and  navy  had  the 
credit  of  conquering  California  from  Mexico,  but  they  have  all 
been  paid  oil"  by  the  General  Government  for  their  services  in 
that  war,  while  the  piom  ers,  the  real  coiKiuerors  of  California, 
have  been  overlooked  by  it  altogether.  But  a  very  few  have  been 
paid  oil",  and  some  of  those  who  have  been  paid  by  the  Govern- 
ment, have  lost  money  by  tlie  expenses  attending  the  collection 
of  it.  Major  Snyder's  claim  for  service  in  that  war,  was  about 
eight  hundred  dollars,  yet  his  agent  in  Washington,  after  he  had 
obtained  it,  wrote  hiin  that  the  expense  he  had  been  put  to  in  the 
collection  of  it,  was  one  hundred  and  lifty  dollars  more  than  the 
whole  claim  came  to.  So  Major  Snyder  got  nothing  for  his  ser- 
vices and  lot>scs  in  the  ^var.  Not  only  have  the  pioneers  not  re- 
ceived their  pay,  but  the  General  Government  is  still  owing  them 
and  others  who  furnished  their  army,  and  that  of  the  United 
States  forces  with  horses,  saddles,  provisions  and  money,  to  en- 
able tliera  to  prosecute  the  war.  A  large  number  of  the  officers 
anil  privates  of  the  pioneer  army,  as  well  as  the  native  Califor- 
nians,  who  took  sides  with  the  Americans,  after  they  had  found 
that  the  authorities  in  Washington  would  not  pay,  either  for 
services  rendered  by  those  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  war,  or 
those  who  had  assisted  it,  and  enabled  it  to  be  successful,  abandon- 
ed all  idea  of  prosecuting  their  claims.  A  great  many  have  now 
lost  their  papers,  and  will,  perhaps,  never  condescend  again  to  ask 
the  General  Government  for  their  pay.    They  are  well  satisfied 


65 


that  the  authorities  in  Washington  would  ratlicr  spend  public 
money  "any  day  in  the  week,"  on  some  common  snob  or  political 
pimp  around  Wasliington,  than  to  save  a  California  pioneer  from 
starvation,  by  paying  him  his  just  dues.  One  thing  is  certain,  a 
truthful  history  of  the  ])ioucers,  and  the  wrongs  done  them  l)y  the 
Government,  will  be  written  and  pul)lishe(l.  Tiiank  God,  the 
Federal  Authorities  can  never  suppress  this  history. 

From  July,  l(S4r),  and  up  to  the  day  the  Military  Governor  ceas- 
ed to  have  control  of  tlie  revenue  service,  tlie  people  of  California 
voluntarily  paid,  although  under  protest,  atarifl'on  foreign  goods 
imported  into  tlie  State,  rather  than  come  to  an  open  rupture  with 
our  naval  and  military  commanders.  There  was  no  law  requiring 
duties  to  be  collected  from  the  merchant,  and  no  revenue  officer 
was  ever  authorized  by  Congress,  or  by  the  Executive  and  Trea- 
sury Departments  of  the  Governmei:t  to  collect  revenue,  until 
Col.  Collier,  the  first  Civil  Collector,  reached  San  Francisco  from 
Washington.  To  shoAV  that  we  have  the  highest  authority  for 
this  declaration,  we  will  quote  from  Mr.  Polk's  last  Annual  Mes- 
sage to  Congress  of  the  Session  of  '48  and  '40.     He  said  : 

"  No  revenue  has  been  or  could  be  collected  at  the  ports  of 
California,  because  Congress  failed  to  authorise  the  establish- 
ment of  Custom  Houses  or  the  appointment  of  officers  for  that 
purpose." 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  from  the  Message  of  President  Polk, 
that  he  never  regarded  the  revenue  collected  by  Gen.  Eiley,  as 
belonging  to  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  neither  did  Gen. 
Riley,  or  any  one  else,  until  the  old  fogies  and  speculators  around 
Washington,  had  made  up  their  minds  to  plunder  this  young  com- 
monwealth. 

The  amount  collectsd  under  the  orders  of  Gen.  Riley,  which  he 
held  for,  and  ever  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  State  of  Califor- 
nia, war.  ^1,010,255  G7.  Out  of  this  fund  there  were  expended  by 
him,  for  the  benefit  of  the  State,  the  following  sums,  viz  :  ^162,- 
236,27,  for  the  expense  of  the  State  Convention  and  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  State  Government,  and  $100,000  to  send  relief  to  the 
the  emigrants  crossing  the  plains  in  1849.  This  left  a  balance 
belong  to  the  State,  of  $754,010,40.  This  fund  has  never  been 
returned  to  the  State,  as  Congress  passed  an  act  turning  the 
whole  amount  over  to  the  General  Fund  of  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  an  unjust  and  ungrateful  act  on  the  part 
5 


66 


of  the  Parent  Government.  This  i.ioney  was  taken  from  the 
Stateagainst  the  solemn  protests  of  Gon.  Riley,  the  Collector  of  it, 
Capt.  Halleck.  the  then  Secretary  of  State,  Com.  Jones,  Gen. 
Percifcr  F.  Smith,  and  the  Government  and  the  people  of  Califor- 
nia. The  Government  of  the  United  States  never  had  any  claim 
to  this  fund,  and  the  manner  of  taking  it  away  from  the  State  of 
California,  was  as  outrageous  and  as  felonious  as  if  it  had  author- 
ized any  one  of  its  officers  to  rob,  by  force,  the  iron  safes  of  our 
merchants. 

Although  the  General  Government,  about  two  years  ago,  by  act 
of  Congress,  appropriated  nearly  one  million  of  dollars  for  the 
payment  of  the  Indian  War  Debt  of  this  State,  still,  even  thh 
sum  is  withheld  from  us  on  mere  quibbles  and  technicalities.  Our 
Indian  War  claim  against  the  Federal  Government  now  amounts 
to  $1,124,935,53.  If  we  could  get  tlie  amount  due  us  on  the 
Civil  Fund,  in  addition  to  the  War  Fund,  the  whole  Avould  amount, 
in  the  aggregate,  to  $1,878,956,03.  This  sum  would  pay  off  about 
two-thirds  of  our  present  State  indebtedness,  and  release  our 
people  from  their  present  most  onorous  taxation.  The  Govern- 
ment at  Washington  has  never  properly  considered  and  appre- 
ciated our  condition,  and  the  hardships  and  difficulties  we  have 
had  to  undergo  in  building  up  and  in  rendering  productive  to  our 
common  country,  this  new,  extensive,  yet  remote  portion  of  the 
American  Union.  We  have  been  too  much  regarded  as  adven- 
turers and  sojourners  on  this  coast,  where  we  are  expected  to 
live  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  Union,  to  be  preyed  upon  by 
Congress  and  the  Atlantic  uiorchants  and  manufacturers,  and  it 
ippears  impossible  to  convince  them  of  their  mistake. 

Any  one  who  has  lived  hero  for  some  six  months  or  a  year,  and 
has,  perhaps,  during  that  time  become  notorious  for  his  corrup- 
tion and  peculation,  and  has  succeeded  in  act-'undating  a  few 
thousand  dollars,  and  leaves  for  the  Atlantic  tetates,  and  there 
sets  himself  up  as  a  California  millionare,  is  sure  to  be  courted 
and  lionized  by  the  people  there,  at  the  expense  of  our  peojtle  and 
the  character  of  our  State.  If  he  carries  a  gold  headed  cane  and 
wears  gold  breast  pins  and  finger  rings,  and  sports  a  heavy  gold 
watch  chain,  he  becomes  the  "  observed  of  all  observers."  lie  is 
considered  the  gayest  of  the  gay,  and  lives  sumptuously  in  pal- 
aces, aiid  has  a  cart  blanche  to  marry  any  one  of  the  beiles  of 
fashion  on  the  Atlantic  side.     Aii  the  country  appears  to  be  in  a 


ing 


67 


rage  about  sucli  coxcombs.  Big  dinners  and  suppers,  magnificent 
wedding  parties  and  Government  contracts,  are  given  them,  and 
most  all  persons  are  ready  to  consult  and  advise  with  such  men 
about  California.  This  shows  just  what  dupes  they  are  on  the 
other  side,  and  how  little  they  know  about  the  people  of  this 
country.  Even  the  Government  officers  and  most  all  the  politi- 
cians around  Washington,  regard  such  coxcombs  with  si)ecial 
favor,  although,  they  may  have  been  considered  here  as  the  con- 
tempt of  all  wise  men,  and  the  admiration  of  fools,  yet  there 
they  are,  looked  upon  as  oracles  of  Avisdom  and  worthy  of  all 
acceptation.  If  a  jdain  citizen  of  California  goes  to  the  Atlan- 
tic States  on  a  visit,  he  is  passed  by  and  cast  aside  by  and  for 
these  men.  He  is  supposed  not  to  know  anything  about  the  Pa- 
cific coast — is  looked  upon  as  a  laborer,  a  miner,  or  a  plain  farm- 
er with  no  influence,  and  therefore,  worthy  of  no  consideration. 
Such  men  are  made  to  appear  also  as  bogus  Callfornians  ;  while 
the  coxcombs  are  pui  down  as  Callfornians,  par  excellence,  al- 
though many  of  them  may  have  had  to  "  leave  their  country  for 
their  country's  good." 


CHAPTER  XII. 


Some  sixteen  years  since,  Daniel  Webster  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  offered  a  resolution  to  that  body,  in  which  he  pro- 
posed that  the  General  GovornnuMit  should  make  some  nrrange- 
ment  with  the  Government  of  Mexico,  for  the  privilege  of  using 
the  harbor  and  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  for  the  use  and  benefit  of 
our  merchant  and  whaleships  in  the  North  Pacific,  and  also  as  a 
rendezvous  station  for  our  ships  of  war.  This  proposition  failed 
to  receive  any  serious  consideration  at  the  hands  of  Congress,  or 
the  Federal  Executive.  At  that  time,  but  few  of  our  statesmen 
had  paid  any  attention  to  the  condition  of  our  Territories  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  and  our  commerce  on  this  ocean.  Indeed,  they 
knew  comparatively  nothing  of  the  condition,  resources,  and  com- 
mercial inUuence  of  the  numerous  and  p'  pulous  nations  iidmbit- 
ing  the  shores  and  islands  of  the  Paciiic.  There  were  but  few, 
that  did  not  scout  the  idea  that  the  Government  of  the  United 


68 


States,  would  ever  extend  its  possessions  on  these  distant  shores, 
or  wield  any  political  or  commercial  influence  on  this  ocean.  Mr. 
Webster  very  frequently  said,  that  our  statesmen  neglected  too 
much  the  duty  of  studying  the  condition  of  their  country,  and  un- 
derstanding the  wants  and  necessities  of  those  regions,  remote 
from  the  seat  of  the  Federal  Government ;  and  for  this  rca:.on,  he 
was  always  fearful  that  our  Territories  on  the  Pacific  would  be 
neglected  and  deeply  wronged  by  the  authorities  in  Washington. 
He,  therefore,  said  that  he  would  not  be  sur,)rised,  nor  could  he 
blame  us,  if  we  should  erect  here,  an  Indeper.  dent  Republic  of  our 
own. 

In  1846,  the  whole  country  was  agitated  from  centre  to  circum- 
ference, growing  out  of  our  difficulties  with  Great  Britain,  in 
reference  to  tlie  settlement  of  the  boundary  line  between  the  Ter- 
ritories of  Oregon  and  the  Territories  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany, on  the  Pacific.  During  the  discussion  of  this  subject  in 
Congress,  the  most  of  our  loading  statesmen  looked  upon  our 
possessions  on  this  side  of  the  continent,  as  of  no  earthly  value 
or  consequence  to  the  Union.  They,  therefore,  rather  than  have 
any  farther  dispute  and  difficulty  with  Great  Britain  about  these 
possessions,  abandoned  our  just  claim  to  the  line  of  64  deg.  40 
min.,  and  for  which  we  had  contended  for  nearly  half  a  century, 
and  p greed  to  accept,  as  a  final  compromise,  the  line  of  4!)  deg. 

At  the  close  of  the  late  war  with  Mexico,  we  acquired,  among 
other  territory,  the  present  State  of  California.  When  this  treaty 
was  presented  to  the  Senate  for  its  ratification,  a  large  number  of 
the  members  of  that  Kugust  body,  even  considered  the  acquisition 
of  this  now  young  giant  State  of  the  Pacific,  as  of  ny  very  great 
consequence  to  the  North  American  Republic.  They  t'lid  not  be- 
lieve that  it  would  add  anything  of  importance  to  the  commerce, 
resources,  revenues  and  power  of  the  country.  How  have  tliese 
men  been  deceived  !  What  a  change  has  not  California  already 
wrought  in  the  financial  and  commercial  affairs  of  our  own  coun- 
try, as  Avell  as  in  almost  every  other  part  of  the  world  I 

Why,  California  is  now  the  fourth  net  postage  revenue  paying 
State  in  the  Union,  .md  the  fifth  tarilT  revenue  paying  State  to 
the  Treasury  of  the  United  States, — and  yet  she  has  not  had  an 
independent  existence  but  a  little  over  six  years.  In  another  port 
of  this  book,  we  have  shown  what  she  has  done  for  the  Atlantic 
States  and  the  world,  and  what  she  is  still  doing  for  them  and  for 


G9 


among 


herself.  Is  it  not  strange,  in  consideration  of  these  facts,  that 
the  Federal  Government  should  exhibit  such  a  parsimonious  and 
niggardly  feeling  towards  this  State  ?  To  show  how  little  the 
autliorities  in  Washington  understand  and  appreciate  their  own, 
as  well  as  our  interests  in  this  country,  wo  will  give  two  striking 
instances,  which  have  recently  come  under  our  observation. 

After  the  new  Custom  House  and  Appraiser's  buildings  were 
erected,  it  was  deemed  by  the  Collector,  and  other  officers  of  the 
lleveuuc  service,  that  they  should  be  enclosed  by  a  substantial 
fence.  They  therefore  addressed  t\u  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
on  this  subject.  After  mature  deliberation,  that  distinguished 
lunctionary  concluded  that  they  should  be  enclosed,  if  the  expense 
of  doing  so  did  not  exceed /om/-  hundred  dollars  !  What  a  gener- 
ous-minded old  fogie  Mr.  Guthrie  must  be !  Why,  four  hundred 
dollars,  in  this  country,  would  not  be  more  than  enough  to  pur. 
chase  the  rough  timber  necessary  to  enclose  it.  We  will  give 
another. 

Among  the  bogus  grants  confirmed  by  the  recent  Board  of  Land 
Commir^i^ioners,  were  those  of  the  renowned  Limantour,  for  about 
ten  million  of  dollars  worth  of  pro])erty,  within  the  limits  of  San 
Francisco, — including  Rincon  Point,  on  which  is  located  the  United 
States  Marine  Hospital.  Also,  two  separate  grants  for  Alcatrass 
Island,  on  which  arc  erected  fortifications  and  a  light-liouse,  and 
the  Farriillaonc  Islands,  on  which  is  likewise  erected  a  light- 
house. Now,  here  is  property  of  the  United  States,  valued  at 
])erliaps  something  like  four  millions  and  a  half  of  dollars,  which 
the  Federal  Government  stands  in  inimincnt  danger  of  losing  al- 
together, and  yet,  the  authorities  in  Washington  ai-e  com])arative- 
ly  giving  themselves  not  .he  least  concern  about  it.  The  citizens 
of  San  Francisco,  who  have  been  placed  also  in  innninent  danger 
by  the  conlirmation  of  these  Limantour  titles,  have  subscribed 
between  lifteen  and  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  ouiployed  three 
able  lawyers,  to  resist  the  coiilirnnition  of  these  titles  by  the  Uni- 
ted States  District  Court  of  Nortiiern  (^'alifornia,  and  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States.  Considering  the  amount  o'" 
property  the  Government  had  involved  in  these  suits,  the  citi/cns 
of  San  Francisco,  and  the  Federal  officers  in  California,  invited 
tlie  authorities  in  Washington  to  co-oi)erate  with  theui.  They 
icplied  to  our  peoi)le,  that  they  would  consent  to  employ  assist- 
ant counsel  to  co-ojjeratc  with  them,  provided  he  would  not  charge 


70 


the  Government  a  fee  over  fve  hundred  dollars  !  Is  it  possible 
that  those  who  administer  the  Government  of  tlie  United  States, 
are  so  i,i>;norant  of  California  as  to  make  such  a  proposition  as 
this  ?  Why,  the  meanest  pettifogger  in  California  would  feel  in- 
sulted by  it.  By  this  proposition,  the  Government  proposes  to 
employ  a  counsel  to  fight  this  Linmntour  case,  to  employ  all  his 
time  for  perhaps  two  or  three  years,  to  contest  its  confirmation 
through  the  United  States  District  Court  for  Northern  California, 
and  to  assist  the  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States  to  pre- 
vent its  confirmation  by  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  and 
yet  it  expects  tliis  counsel  to  do  all  this  for  five  hundred  dollars ! 
The  fact  is,  the  Federal  Government  expects  our  people  to  protect 
its  property,  and  it  will  no  douljt  abuse  us  if  wo  do  not.  We  are 
threatened,  at  this  time,  on  all  sides, — with  a  war  with  one  or  two 
large  European  Powers,  and  with  very  grave  difficulties  in  Cen- 
tral America, — and  yet  the  Government  is  not  even  willing  to 
take  the  proper  stejis  to  defend  tlie  title  to  the  property  on  which 
its  own  fortilications,  and  other  public  buildings,  are  erected  in 
California.  Such  conduct  is  enougii  to  bring  the  blush  of  shame 
to  every  American. 

It  is  but  proper  to  admit  tliat  we  have  brought  many  of  these 
difficulties  upon  ourselves.  We  have  forgotten  our  duty  to  this 
part  of  the  country,  arising  from  the  strong  disposition  on  the 
])art  of  our  public  men,  of  all  partirs,  to  keep  in  with  each  reign- 
ing Administration  in  Washington,  and  the  politicians  on  ilie 
other  side  of  the  continent.  Owing  to  this  very  fact,  the  aathori- 
ties  in  Wasliington  have  always  treated  the  Pacific  coast  with  the 
most  marked  contempt.  The  State  of  California  has  only  four 
votes  in  the  Presidential  Electoral  College,  and  the  adjacent  Ter- 
ritories  none  whatever,  and  for  this  reason,  California  is  a  ma[tcr 
of  very  little  concern  to  Presidential  aspirants  and  President 
makers.  It  is  a  well  known  fact,  that  j)oliticians  deal  in  votes  as 
morchunis  do  in  merchandise.  Tlie  interests  and  welfare  of  Cali- 
fornia, therefore,  will  never  connnand  respect  and  attention,  when 
they  come  in  conllict  with  those  Stales  Avhieh  can  out  vote  her. 
We  must,  therefore,  make  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
respect  our  demands,  by  some  stronger  power  than  the  mere  four 
votes  we  are  entitled  to  give  for  the  election  of  a  President.  The 
Federal  CJovernment,  as  well  as  the  States  on  the  other  side  of 
the  continent,  are  now  de})endent  upon  us,  and  we  will  have  to 


W 


n 


f  these 
to  this 
on  the 
re  i  •^li- 
on liie 
ithori- 
\h  the 
y  four 
ut  Tcr- 
nialtcr 
si(hmt 

otO?  513 

Cali- 
1,  wlion 
to  hor. 
States 
re  four 
.  The 
side  of 
lavo  to 


test  their  patriotism  and  sense  of  justice  for  us,  by  influences 
more  i)otcnt  than  votes.  The  pocket  nerve  is  more  sensitive,  with 
politicians,  than  the  most  sensitive  nerve  of  their  bodies.  When 
that  is  touched,  they  can  become  patriotic  very  suddenly.  Here 
is  our  strong  point,  and  we  must  make  it  tell. 

The  most  of  our  politicians  have  greatly  impaired  their  influ- 
ence and  standing  in  this  State,  by  becoming  the  apologists  or 
defenders  of  the  policy  and  course  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  towards  the  Pacific  coast.  The  Hon.  William  M. 
Gwin,  who  has  been  one  of  the  most  efficient  and  effective  men 
from  tiiis  State  in  Congress,  has  damaged  his  prospects  on  the 
Pac'fic  coast  immensely,  owing  to  the  very  fact  that  he  has  had  great 
infl'ieiicc  with  the  "  Powers  That  Be,"  in  the  Federal  City.  No 
mai  doubted  his  ability,  or  his  devotion  to  the  State  ;  but  many 
became  fearful  that  his  influence  with  the  Government  was  too 
greai  to  be  true,  in  all  things,  to  California.  This  was  the  rock 
on  which  he  partially  foundered  his  future  prospects  in  this  State. 
Had  he,  from  the  «tart,  resisted  the  aggressions  of  the  Federal 
Govcrniiicnt  towards  Lliis  country,  his  influence  might  have  been 
omnipotent  on  the  Pacific,  at  this  time,  and  his  standing  in  the 
country,  as  a  public  man,  would  have  been  as  strong  again  as  it 
is  now  ;  while  his  influence  Avith  the  authorities,  in  Washington, 
would  not  have  been  lessened  one  iota.  Had  he  denounced  the 
usurpation  of  the  Government  towards  California,  from  the  start, 
he  would  have  held  a  jjosition,  as  a  Senator  from  this  State,  that 
woultl  have  made  him,  with  the  people  of  the  United  States,  (but 
not  the  ])oliticians,)  on  )  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the  country. 
We  repeat,  that  this  State  has  lost  everything  by  being  tied  up  to 
the  political  "dug-outs"  and  "  bniigoes,"  in  Washington. 

It  is  idle  for  the  politicians  of  the  Pacilic  coast  to  think  of  sus- 
taining the  "  Powers  That  Be,"  in  Washington,  until  we  know 
how  we  aie  to  stand  with  them.  No  j)olitical  party  cjin  long 
maintain  an  existence,  in  this  country,  that  will  give  a  in-eference 
to  these  old  Washington  rats,  over  the  people  of  the  Pacilic  coast. 
Every  pai'ty  has  had  satisfactory  proof  of  this  fact.  Every  i)ub- 
lic  man,  therefore,  who  expects  to  remain  here,  and  to  possess  the 
confidence  and  the  support  of  the  people,  will  have  to  take  his 
position  with  this  country,  and  stand  by  it  to  the  last.  Demo- 
crats, Ivnow-Nothings,  and  Republicans,  will  all  find  this  to  be 
the  case,  and  ^he  sooner  they  take  their  positions  the  better.     Bo- 


72 

sides,  tliey  will  lose  notliing  with  the  "  Powers  Tliat  Be,"  in  doing 
so.  Indeed,  instead  of  losing,  they  will  coniinafiid  the  respect,  if 
not  the  admiration  of  the  authorities  in  Washington,  and  the 
people  Oil  the  other  side,  by  taking  this  position,  and  it  is  certain 
they  will  never  be  forgotten  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  for  their  devotion  to  this  country.  In  addition  to  all  this, 
let  us  support  no  man  for  President  who  will  not  give  the  Pacific 
coast  a  Cabinet  officer,  and  he  must  be  a  man  whom  all  the  peo- 
ple out  here  can  trust.  We  need  fear  nothing,  when  wc  are  true 
to  ourselves.  When  the  people  of  the  Pacilic  coast  are  concerned 
for  themselves,  no  one  need  be  concerned  for  them.  The  Federal 
Government  will  do  us  justice,  when  it  is  satisfied  that  it  can 
neither  coax  or  drive  us. 

When  we  take  into  consideration  the  strange  and  unnatural 
course  pursued  towards  this  country  by  the  Parent  Government, 
it  is  really  astonishing  how  wo  have  been  able  to  accomplish  so 
much.  Had  it  not  been  for  our  vast  mineral  wealth,  we  certainly 
would  have  been  doomed  to  a  state  of  wretchedness  and  distress, 
whif^,h  no  people  perhaps  on  this  continent  have  ever  experienced. 
The  authorities  at  Washington  can  never  lay  the  flattering  unc- 
tion to  their  souls,  that  to  them  California  is  indebted  any  thanks, 
for  what  she  has  done  for  herself,  and  for  what  good  she  has  ac- 
complished, and  for  what  benefits  she  has  conferred  upon  our 
whole  country.  Had  we  on  the  Pacific  coast,  depended  upon  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  for  assistance,  to  aid  in  the  de- 
velopment of  our  resources,  and  for  increasing  the  commerce  and 
pi'oducts  of  this  country,  we  should  have  depended  upon  a  broken 
reed.  Indeed,  instead  of  its  seeking  to  })roteot  and  befriend  us. 
it  has  acted  towards  us  as  if  desirous  to  sink  us  to  the  dijcpest 
depths  of  despondency  and  humiliation.  Had  it  succeeded  in  all 
of  its  plans  for  our  injury,  it  would  have  only  been  necessary  for 
it  to  crown  its  ignoble  triumphs  over  us,  by  striking  from  the 
spangled  banner  the  star  that  now  glitters  in  the  name  of  Califor- 
nia, and  leave  behind  the  stripe  as  a  tit  emblem  of  our  degradation. 

From  the  facts  narrated  in  the  foregoing  part  of  this  work,  it 
will  be  plainly  seen  that  a  majority  of  the  statesmen,  as  well  as 
a  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Union,  residing  on 
the  other  side  of  the  continent,  have  ever  regarded  our  ])eople 
and  country  with  evident  indifference,  if  not  contempt.  TJiey 
can  hardly  realise  the  fact  that  California,  so  remote  from  the 


78 

scat  of  the  Parent  Government,  can  be,  in  fact,  a  co-equal  mem- 
ber of  the  confederated  States  of  North  America.  They  ac- 
IcnoAvledge  tliat  we  have  a  rich  country,  but  they  act  as  if  they 
regarded  us  as  being  a  foreign  State,  and  our  people  a  mere  band 
of  adventurers.  It  is  about  time  that  tliey  should  bo  convinced 
of  their  error,  and  change  their  policy  towards  us,  as  the  griev- 
ances of  wliich  we  liave  so  very  justly  complained,  if  persisted  in, 
may  very  greatly  impair  tlie  brotherly  union  and  harmony  of 
these  two  great  divisions  of  the  North  American  Republic. 


CHAPTER  Xlir. 


Let  us  see  what  our  people  have  done  for  themselves,  their 
country,  and  the  entire  civilized  world,  since  they  commenced 
laying  broad  and  deep  this  new  Anglo-American  Empire  on  the 
Pacific. 

In  the  year  1848,  we  believe,  the  aggregate  amount  of  bullion 
in  the  United  States  was  officially  reported,  if  we  recollect  cor- 
rectly, to  be  $130,000,000.  Since  then,  tliere  has  been  dug  from 
the  mines  of  California,  by  our  hardy  miners,  about  §400,000,000 
in  gold,  and  our  mineral  resources  are  admitted,  by  all  wlio  know 
the  country,  to  bo  inexhaustible.  The  average  annual  exports  of 
the  products  of  California,  amounts  to  about  §60,000,000.  This 
amount  is  far  greater  than  any  other  State  in  the  Union  annually 
exports,  of  its  own  jn-oducts.  Indeed,  it  is  almost  as  large  as 
any  two,  of  the  old  States  of  the  Union  combined,  export  of  their 
own  products  alone.  We  have  purchased  and  paid  to  our  At- 
lantic brethren,  for  the  products  of  their  soil,  merchandise,  manu- 
factures, (fee,  since  we  have  occupied  the  shores  of  the  Pacific, 
§250,000,000.  We  have  increased  the  value  of  the  real  and  per- 
sonal property  of  the  Atlantic  States,  within  the  last  six  years, 
over  §200,000,000.  Within  the  same  time,  we  have  kept  the 
Federal  Treasury,  from  the  products  of  our  mines,  overflowing 
with  revenue,  and  within  the  same  time,  also,  we  have  been  the 
means  of  increasing  the  ship  tonnage  of  the  United  States  over 
twelve  hundred  thousand  tons.  Wo  have  saved  the  banks,  and 
the  importing  merchants  of  the  Atlantic  States,  from  threatened 
5* 


74 

pecuniary  disasters,  and  our  whole  country  from  bankruptcy ;  and 
we  have  protected  the  financial  honor  and  credit  of  tliirf  entire 
Union,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  Our  people,  by  their  own  vol- 
untary labor  and  outlays,  have  constructed  tunnels,  canals,  ditches, 
bridges  and  roads,  at  a  cost  of  $85,000,000.  We  are  now  con- 
nected, by  steamers,  with  the  Pacific  Ocean  coast,  in  Nortli  and 
South  America,  from  Paget  Sound  in  the  North,  to  Talcahuana  in 
the  South.  Besides  this,  wo  have  lines  of  j^ail  vessels  to  all  the 
principal  commercial  ports  in  the  Pacifu!.  AVithin  the  next  five 
years,  we  will  be  connected  with  China,  Ja])an,  Australia  and  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  by  lines  of  steamers,  and  Avith  nearly  every 
part  of  the  globe  by  telegraph  lines,  whether  the  General  Gov- 
ernment renders  us  assistencc  or  not.  We  shall  also,  by  that 
time,  have  under  way  a  good  distance,  (perhaps  as  far  as  Salt 
Lake,  in  Utah  Territory,)  with  or  without  the  aid  of  Congress, 
the  great  National  Continental  Railroad. 

Our  foreign  commerce,  within  the  next  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
from  this  time,  must  become  incalculably  large.  We  have  already 
entered  upon  a  contest  with  the  great  maritime  States  of  the 
world,  for  the  commercial  supremacy  of  the  Pacific.  If  the  Gov- 
ernment of  Washington,  and  our  brethren  of  the  Atlantic  States, 
refuse  to  grant  to  us  the  same  facilities  as  arc  and  have  been  ex- 
tended to  other  parts  of  the  Union,  wo  can  and  will  maintain 
this  contest  single-handed.  We  have  marked  out  our  course,  and 
we  do  not  intend  to  take  any  step  backwards.  Two-thirds  of 
the  human  race  reside  on  the  Islands,  within  and  around  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Our  position  on  this  continent  is 
such  as  to  enable  us  to  have  access  and  intercourse  with  thcni 
during  almost  every  month  of  the  year.  Our  commerce  is  now 
sweeping  across,  in  every  direction,  the  broad  main  of  this  Ocean, 
and  we  shall  soon  hare  it  extended  to  every  sea,  bay,  harbor, 
roadstead,  and  river  connected  with  it.  From  'the  orient  to  the 
Occident,  and  from  the  icebergs  of  the  Polar  regions  to  the  ver- 
dant plains  of  the  Torrid  zone,  American  commerce  is  now  ox- 
tending  its  sway  ;  but  in  ho  part  of  tlie  world  has  it  increased 
and  progressed  to  such  an  extent,  as  it  has  done  in  the  Pacific, 
since  California  became  a  part  of  the  American  Union.  Instead 
of  our  State,  therefore,  being  regarded  with  indiil'erence  by  the 
Government  at  Washington,  and  the  people  of  the  Atlantic 
States,  we  should  be  looked  upon  as  the  brightest  star  in  the 


76 


galaxy  of  the  Union — as  the  richest  State  in  the  tiara  of  our 

National  rejoicing — as  a  State, 

"  Great,  frlorious  nnil  free, 

First  pride  of  the  Union,  first  gem  of  tiic  sea." 

We  rejoice  in  all  the  great  achievnients  of  our  country — in  all 
her  victories  in  war  and  in  peace,  whether  on  land  or  on  sea. 
Her  achievements  in  peace  are  no  loss  ronowncd  than  those  of 
war.  While  we  are  united,  we  are  strong,  for  "  united  wo  stand, 
divided  Ave  fall."  A  glorious  future  awaits  the  destiny  of  our 
whole  country,  if  we  are  but  true  to  ourselves.  The  tonnage  of 
our  commercial  marine  exceeds,  at  this  time,  that  of  any  otlicr 
power  on  the  plobe.  In  this  respect,  Ave  lead  all  the  nations  of 
the  world.  Our  flag  now  floats  on  every  sea  and  ocean,  and  long 
may  it  Avave,  as  an  illustrious  ensign  ot  the  strength  and  the  glory 
of  our  country. 

Who  is  there,  that  is  a  native  of  the  Fast  Anchored  Isle,  and 
is  not  proud  of  the  magnitude  of  her  acliievements  and  power? 
One  of  her  greatest  statesmen,  Avhen  alluding  to  licr  stupendous 
sway,  on  land  and  sea,  said  of  her,  that  "  the  sun  never  sets  ujion 
her  territories  :  that  her  military  posts  are  dotted  around  the  en- 
tire globe,  and  their  morning  drum-beat,  following  the  course  of 
the  sun,  sends  forth  continual  strains  of  tlie  martial  airs  of  Eng- 
land,"— and  thus  one  of  her  most  eminent  of  poets  has  iuunor- 

talizcd  her  in  song — 

"  Britannia  needs  no  Imlwarks, 
No  towers  iiloiii;  the  strep  ; 
Her  lionie  is  on  t!ie  nioiintuin  wave, 
Her  [latlnvay  on  tlie  deep." 

Why  should  Ave  not,  too,  glory  in  the  expansion  of  our  coun- 
try's dominioriS,  and  her  commercial  triumphs  on  the  ocean,  as 
Avell  as  her  i)eaceful  SAvay  among  tlie  nations  of  the  earth.  Let 
us  aAvay  Avith  all  sectional  feeling  ;  aAvay  Avith  all  political  and 
geographical  divisions  ;  aAvay  Avith  all  national  strife,  and  as 
men,  and  as  Americans,  let  us  look  u})on  our  Avliole  country,  how- 
ever bounded,  as  still  our  country,  to  be  defended  with  all  our 
hearts  and  hands,  as  "  the  land  of  the  free,  and  the  home  of  the 
brave,"  and  as  possessing  for  us  all,  one  home,  one  country,  one 
constitution,  and  one  destiny. 

We  have  now,  one  State  and  tAvo  Territories  on  the  Pacific, 
and  if  Utah  may  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the  Pacific  por- 
tion of  the  Union,  avc  then  have  one  State  and  three  Territories. 


76 


In  six  years  from  lliis  time,  tliorc  will  l)c  throe  States  formeil  out 
of  the  Territories  of  Washington  unci  Oreuon.  Three  States 
can,  and  no  doubt  will,  be  funned  out  of  California,  and  three  out 
of  Utah  and  a  i)art  of  New  ^Mexico.  This  Avill  nuike  nine  States 
on  the  I'aeilic  coast,  and  give  us  a  representation  in  the  United 
States  Senate  of  eighteen  Senators,  and  in  the  House  of  Rc'pre- 
sentatives  at  least  twenty-live  members.  In  the  mean  time,  Low- 
er California  and  Sonora  will  as  naturally  full  into  our  hands,  as 
the  ri])i'  i)ear  falls  to  the  ground.  When  this  takes  jdaee,  we  will 
have  ti.  00  more  States  on  this  side  of  the  continent — being  within 
one  of  the  number  of  original  States  that  secured  the  indepen- 
dence of  America — that  ordained  and  established  the  Federal 
Constitution,  and  that  laid  the  foundations  of  the  most  enlight- 
ened and  powerful  Republic  the  world  has  ever  seen.  These 
twelve  States  will  then  give  us  twenty-four  Senators,  and  some 
thirty-two  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  population  of  these  Pacific  States  of  America  will  number, 
by  that  time,  not  far  from  two  millions  and  a  half  of  souls.  Wc 
will  then  have  also  a  sea  coast  of  over  three  thousand  miles  in 
extent,  with  some  of  the  most  safe,  accessible,  and  s))aeious  har- 
bors on  the  globe.  For  mineral  and  agricultural  wealth,  all  this 
region  of  country  exceeds  that  of  any  other  jjortiou  of  the  world. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  land  of  promise  and  abundance,  for  the  enterpris- 
ing and  industrious  of  all  climes  and  all  countries.  No  })eople, 
on  any  part  of  this  great  sphere  wc  inhabit,  can  boast  of  so  salu- 
brious a  climate,  and  so  productive  a  country. 

The  Past  and  the  Present  of  the  Paciiic  1  have  but  imperfectly 
presented,  but  the  actual  of  the  Future  has  yet  to  l>e  seen.  Yet» 
far  in  the  distant  future,  I  can  distinctly  liehold  the  generations 
that  arc  to  follow  us,  rising  into  being  ;  and  by  their  enterprise, 
I  can  see  them  establishing  new  civilized  States  and  Territories, 
in  this  vast  region  of  the  world.  I  can  see  this  mighty  ocean, 
whose  waters  now  wash  our  shores,  covered  with  ships  and  steam- 
ers, sweeping  along  its  broad  main,  and  exchanging  the  ])roduets 
of  Nations.  I  can  see  new  temples  dedicated  to  Almighty  God, 
occupying  the  places  of  those  where  formerly  stood  temj)les  dedi- 
cated to  wood  and  stone.  I  can  sec  the  public  school  house  rising 
on  those  spots  now  consecrated  to  the  war-dance  and  the  funeral 
pyre.  I  can  see  and  hear  read  the  works  of  new  statesmen,  i)hi- 
losophcrs,  biographers,  historians  and  poets,  who  have  recorded 


gn 


77 


the  woiulorfiil  events,  tlie  spirit  and  tlie  patriotism  of  tlicir  times, 
that  thoy  might  breathe  thoiti  to  a  future  aj^o.  I  can  distinctly 
hear  the  cliihlren  of  the  future,  "  in  the  vales  and  on  the  mount," 
joyously  singinj^  sonj^s  in  praise  of  the  freedom,  dominion  and 
glory  of  America.  I  can  hear,  npon  each  returning  Fourth  of 
July,  the  military  hands  playing  the  martial  airs  of  this  Land  of 
the  Free,  for  a  peoi)le  whos'>  '•:,.,um3  are  swelling  with  pride  and 
delight.  I  can  behold  new  countries,  inhabited  by  a  free,  patri- 
otic, erdightened  and  energetic  people,  over  which  proudly  lloats 
the  stars  and  stri])es  of  the  Union.  I  can  distinctly  see  new  ora- 
tors, in  the  halls  of  legislation,  while  maintaining  and  upholding 
the  rights  and  interests  of  their  country,  holding  their  listeners 
in  breathless  attention,  bv  captivating  them  with  their  eloquence  ; 
and  I  can  hear,  on  each  larly  morn  and  dewey  eve,  the  cannon's 
opening  roar,  from  new  American  ramparts  and  fortilications,  on 
and  along  the  shores  of  this  ocean.  T':e  child  is  even  now  born, 
Avho  may  behold  these  wondrous  and  glorious  events. 

The  triumphs  which  our  people  have  already'  achieved,  is  an 
index  of  what  may  be  accomi)lished  in  the  future.  They  have 
already  overcome  almost  supcrhn''j,n  difficulties  and  adversities  ; 
and  this,  too,  they  have  done,  in  the  face  of  the  most  determined 
opposition  against  them,  on  the  part  of  the  General  Government. 
Indeed,  the  difficulties  they  have  overcome,  and  the  many  great 
deeds  they  have  performed,  arc  truly  wonderful.  If  wc  shall 
continue  to  advance,  for  the  next  six  years,  as  we  have  done  for 
the  six  that  is  past,  we  will  then  exhibit  a  progress  unparalleled 
in  the  world's  great  history.  Our  position  and  resources,  as  well 
as  our  progress  in  all  that  makes  a  people  enlightened,  wealthy 
and  powerful,  arc  already  the  subject  of  surprise  and  admiration, 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  But  if  we  have  made  such  vast  pro- 
gress, within  the  last  six  years,  what  will  be  our  condition  Avithin 
the  next  six  years  to  come,  when  we  shall  have,  by  that  time,  as 
Mr.  Benton  has  said,  "  risen  to  the  dignity  of  an  Empire."  The 
future  of  the  Pacific  must,  therefore,  form  one  of  the  most  bril- 
liant, instructive  and  remarkable  chapters  in  the  history  of  human 
civilization. 

In  coidusion,  I  beg  to  be  allowed  a  few  words  personal  to  my- 
self. All  the  evils  which  have  been  inflicted  upon  this  State  by 
the  Federal  Government,  I  foresaw,  and  predicted  through  my 
paper,  the  California  Courier,  in  1850  and  '51.  would  come  upon  us. 


78 


I  rcsistoil  tlicn,  tlio  sale  and  tho  lease  of  tlio  iiiiucral  laiuln  ;  I  re- 
sisted tlie  cstalilisliincut  of  the  IJoard  of  Land  Conunissioncrn, 
and  the  onthiwini^  of  tho  tith's  to  our  hinds  ;  I  resisted  tlio  Assay 
Office  swindle  ;  I  resisted  the  poliey,  of  shipijini;'  ont  men,  from 
tho  Alhintici,  to  lill  our  ollices,  ami  to  tn'owd  the  piont'ei's,  fori 
know  that  they  would  aecnmulate  all  tlie  money  they  could,  and 
then  leave  us;  I  said  then,  that  the  authorities  in  Wasliinpjton, 
cared  nothing  al)ont  California,  but  to  plunder  it  ;  I  said  then, 
that  Congress  would  never  con-ent  to  give  us  any  continental 
road  until  we  were  determined  to  withhold  the  precious  metals  of 
this  country,  from  the  use  of  tho  General  (Jovernment,  and  the 
people  of  tho  Atlantic  States,  or  take  some  other  means  to  strike 
terror  into  the  hearts  of  our  oppressors,  and  thank  God,  this  evi- 
dence is  on  record.  Every  word  I  then  wrote,  has  i)roved  to  ho 
true. 

During  the  whole  of  this  time,  however,  I  had  almost  to  bite 
the  dust,  from  my  sti'aightened  pecuniary  circumstances.  Mr. 
Collector  King's  ])olicy  towards  tho  State,  as  avcII  as  that  of  a 
majority  of  the  Federal  Officers,  in  California,  also,  many  of  the 
members  of  Mr.  Fillmore's  Administration,  and  the  members  of 
Congres,  was  just  the  reverse  of  nunc,  I  was  therefore  pro- 
scriliod.  When  it  was  found,  that  neither  money  or  offices  would 
purchase  my  silence — would  make  me  abandon  ray  position,  then 
I  was  to  be  crowded  to  the  wall,  I  asked  from  them  no  quarters) 
however,  and  I  gave  them  none,  although,  from  losses  by  four  de- 
structive fires,  and  other  adversities.  Host  all  the  money  and  ])ro- 
perty  I  possessed.  The  only  regret;  I  had  on  account  of  these  mis- 
fortunes, was  tho  fact,  that  some  of  my  friends,  also  lost  money 
by  the  disasters  which  befell  mo.  Let  them  not  think  that  I  have 
forgotten  them.  But,  although  the  men  who  pursued  me  with 
such  violence,  and  succeeded  in  making  me  poor,  triumphed  for  a 
while,  yet  thank  God,  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  sec  about  all 
of  them  overwhelmed  with  discomfiture.  They  have  all  fled  back 
to  the  Atlantic  States,  with  their  ill-gotten  gains,  while  I  am  still 
here  and  "  still  live"  to  write  the  history  of  the  past,  and  again 
to  defend  the  interests  and  rights  of  this  State,  as  well  as  to  con- 
sign these  once  favorite  minions  and  pets  of  Uncle  Sam,  in  Cali- 
fornia, to  merited  oblivion  and  contempt.  I  am  here,  too,  sus- 
tained by  the  proud  consciousness  that  my  course  then,  has  been 
approved  by  the  people  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and  theirs  has  been 


T9 

coiulcmncd.  Who,  now  has  triiiinphod  ?  Capt.  Macondray  and 
othoi-rfaro  still  here  also,  who  were  then  threatened,  that  if  they  gave 
their  sui)i)ort  to  me,  they  shoidd  siiilV't  for  it,  and  nearly  every  old 
Calilbrnian,  who  followed  a  legitimate  business  for  siipitort,  and 
wlio  resisted  then  the  encroaehments  of  tlic  Federal  (iovern  ncnt 
u))on  this  State,  (wlio  arc  living'^  are  likewise  hero,  ready,  as  of 
yore,  to  defend  their  rights  and  property,  and  to  vindicate  tlio  in- 
tegrity and  independence  of  the  State. 

The  approbation,  with  wdiich  the  lectures,  containing  the  sub- 
stance of  this  work,  has  been  received  )»y  the  public,  has  been  a 
source  of  no  ordiimry  |)rido  and  gratillcation  to  me.  Indeed,  in 
consideration  of  this  fact,  I  have  considered  myself  justiliuble  in 
adopting,  on  the  conclusion  of  this  work,  tlie  language  used  by  the 
great  Emmet,  when  on  trial  for  his  life,  although  his  position  and 
mine  are  vastly  diflcront  ;  when  his  judges  charged  him  with  be- 
ing the  keystone  of  the  cond)ination  of  Irishmen,  who  had  leagued 
together  for  the  overthrow  of  the  liberties  of  his  country,  ho  re- 
idied,  to  his  accusers  by  saying  : — "  My  Lords  you  do  me  honor 
overmuch — you  have  given  to  the  subaltern,  all  the  honors  of  a 
superior."  That  I  should  feel  proud  of  the  approljution  of  my 
fellow-citizens  for  the  course  I  have  pursued  ever  since  I  have 
lived  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  for  the  labors  I  have  performed  for 
this  part  of  our  country  is  but  natural.  Who  could  help  it? 
But  I  am  not  vain,  no:  shall  I  be  puffed  up  with  conceit,  should 
this  work  be  approved  by  those  for  whose  interest  and  welfare  it 
has  been  written.  I  have  made  this  country  my  permanent  home. 
Here  will  I  die,  and  here  shall  my  body  be  buried.  May  that 
Good  Providence  •which  lias  so  long  preserved  us  a  nation, 
continue  to  watch  over,  and  to  direct  the  destinies  of  our  be- 
loved country,  until  that  day  shall  come,  when,  as  Mr.  Calhoun 
has  most  beautifully  expressed  it, — "  Heaven  shall  usher  in  the 
dawn  of  the  earth's  great  jubilee." 


fS^ 


